The emergence of the propagation wave vector in high field NMR: analysis and implications

At ultra high field strength (>4 T), the RF-wavelength relative to the dimension of the human body leads to significant excitation field (B1) inhomogeneity arising out of wave propagation effects. The excitation field is thus spatio-temporal and in conjunction with the increase in tissue conductivity, wave propagation phenomena can no longer be ignored. We thus find the propagation of radiation at ultra high fields new phenomena commonly observed in quantum optics but traditionally negligible in NMR such as spatio-temporal phase modulation of the excitation field such that the identity between pulse area and flip angle is no longer valid. In this paper, the emergence of field propagation phenomena in NMR experiments is analytically and experimentally demonstrated. It is shown that in addition to the well-studied dielectric resonance phenomena at high magnetic fields, propagation effects transform the excitation pulse into an adiabatic excitation. The high field strength also means that nonlinear effects such as self-induced transparency, propagation phenomena such as transient four wave mixing, are now possible in NMR experiments. It is shown and experimentally demonstrated at 7 T that additional constraints due to phase matching considerations are imposed on the formation of echoes in high field NMR