Improvement of slice selectivity using dephased alternating transition in MRI

Abstract

Slice profile used for magnetic resonance (MR) imaging has transition region between passband and stopband. Sharper transition performs better slice selection. This abstract proposes method to design short-duration RF pulse without increasing transition region width. This method is also able to be applied for designing better selective RF pulse. For proposed method, additional phase is merged into a transition region of slice profile. Two RF pulses having different phases are used alternately. The proposed algorithm produces about 23.4% reduction of RF pulse duration without transition increase.