Phase Incremented Echo Train Acquisition applied to Magnetic Resonance Pore Imaging

TL;DR

This paper introduces the application of Phase Incremented Echo Train Acquisition (PIETA) to Magnetic Resonance Pore Imaging (MRPI) with CPMG sequences, simplifying phase cycling and revealing coherence pathway amplitudes.

Contribution

The study demonstrates how PIETA can be effectively used in MRPI to improve phase cycling and analyze coherence pathways in complex NMR pulse sequences.

Findings

PIETA simplifies phase cycling in MRPI.

PIETA provides insights into coherence pathway amplitudes.

Enhanced understanding of spin dynamics in complex pulse sequences.

Abstract

Efficient phase cycling schemes remain a challenge for NMR techniques if the pulse sequences involve a large number of rf-pulses. Especially complex is the Carr Purcell Meiboom Gill (CPMG) pulse sequence where the number of rf-pulses can range from hundreds to several thousands. Our recent implementation of Magnetic Resonance Pore Imaging (MRPI) is based on a CPMG rf-pulse sequence in order to refocus the effect of internal gradients inherent in porous media. While the spin dynamics for spin-$1/2$ systems in CPMG like experiments are well understood it is still not straight forward to separate the desired pathway from the spectrum of unwanted coherence pathways. In this contribution we apply Phase Incremented Echo Train Acquisition (PIETA) to MRPI. We show how PIETA offers a convenient way to implement a working phase cycling scheme and how it allows one to gain deeper insights into the amplitudes of undesired pathways.