Combination of magic-echo and single-point imaging techniques for solid-state MRI

Abstract

Due to reduced molecular motion the transverse relaxation timeT 2 in solid materials is typically shorter by a factor of 103 to 105 in comparison to those in liquids, resulting in a large intrinsic nuclear magnetic resonance line-width that can be well above 20 kHz. Therefore high-resolution solid-state magnetic resonance imaging requires either very strong gradients or special line-narrowing techniques. Single-point imaging (SPI) is a successful pure phase encoding sequence in imaging soft-solid materials; however, when used to study rigid solid materials it still suffers from a very long acquisition time and large gradients. On the other hand, magic echo is a technique that can be used to effectively refocus dipolar interaction, thus achieving a line narrowing. Therefore, the aim of this work is to improve the signal intensity with the combination of the magic echo technique and the SPI sequence. In this paper first applications and a comparison of the SPI sequence with a combination of the magic echo and the SPI sequence to image structures of solid-state materials are presented.