Relaxation dispersion in MRI induced by fictitious magnetic fields

A new method entitled Relaxation Along a Fictitious Field (RAFF) was recently introduced for investigating relaxations in rotating frames of rank ≥ 2. RAFF generates a fictitious field (E) by applying frequency-swept pulses with sine and cosine amplitude and frequency modulation operating in a sub-adiabatic regime. In the present work, MRI contrast is created by varying the orientation of E, i.e. the angle ε between E and the z″ axis of the second rotating frame. When ε > 45°, the amplitude of the fictitious field E generated during RAFF is significantly larger than the RF field amplitude used for transmitting the sine/cosine pulses. Relaxation during RAFF was investigated using an invariant-trajectory approach and the Bloch-McConnell formalism. Dipole-dipole interactions between identical (like) spins and anisochronous exchange (e.g., exchange between spins with different chemical shifts) in the fast exchange regime were considered. Experimental verifications were performed in vivo in human and mouse brain. Theoretical and experimental results demonstrated that changes in ε induced a dispersion of the relaxation rate constants. The fastest relaxation was achieved at ε ≈ 56°, where the averaged contributions from transverse components during the pulse are maximal and the contribution from longitudinal components are minimal. RAFF relaxation dispersion was compared with the relaxation dispersion achieved with off-resonance spin lock T(?ρ) experiments. As compared with the off-resonance spin lock T(?ρ) method, a slower rotating frame relaxation rate was observed with RAFF, which under certain experimental conditions is desirable.     

Multicomponent water proton transverse relaxation and T2-discriminated water diffusion in myelinated and nonmyelinated nerve

The influence of compartmental boundaries on water proton transverse relaxation and diffusion measurements was investigated in three distinct excised nerves, namely, the non-myelinated olfactory nerve, the Schwann cell myelinated trigeminal nerve, and the oligodendrocyte myelinated optic nerve of the garfish. The transverse relaxation decay curves were multiexponential and their decomposition yielded three primary components with T₂ values 30–50, 150, and 500 ms, which were subsequently assigned to water protons in the myelin, axoplasm, and interaxonal compartments. The short T₂ component was absent in the non-myelinated olfactory nerve, but present in both myelinated nerves and thus provides supporting evidence for the use of quantitative T₂ measurements to measure the degree of myelination. The signal contribution of each T₂ component to the apparent diffusion coefficient measurements was varied by incrementing the spin-echo time with a preparatory CPMG train of radiofrequency pulses. The apparent diffusion coefficient and its anisotropy were shown to be independent of the spin-echo time over the range of 70 to 450 ms.     

A rotational approach to localized SPAMM 1-1 tagging

Magnetic resonance tagging usually relies on controlling the phase dispersion of the transverse magnetization component. Phase dispersion is, however, affected by the inherent phase of selective excitation pulses, thus limiting their combination with tagging sequences to the application of refocusable pulses, as in the localized spatial modulation of magnetization (L-SPAMM) technique. In this study, we examine the effect of selective excitation pulses on a L-SPAMM 1-1 sequence, showing that in the case of two identical pulses the phase component is canceled out, and thus preemphasis and refocus gradients are not needed, allowing us to take advantage of a constant gradient throughout the tagging sequence, and also that one might choose nonrefocusable maximum and minimum phase pulses.     

Two-photon absorption and two-photon induced absorption of liquid toluene at 347.15 nm

Pump pulse transmission and time-delayed probe pulse transmission measurements through liquid toluene were performed with linear and circular polarized second harmonic pulses of a mode-locked ruby laser system. Two-photon absorption and two-photon induced absorption are observed. The induced absorption anisotropy is investigated. A theory of two-photon absorption in isotropic media is presented. The two-photon absorption cross-section components, the effective excited-state absorption cross-section, the absorption anisotropy relaxation time and the excited singlet-state relaxation time are determined.     

Soliton generation via continuous stokes acoustic self-scattering of hypersonic waves in a paramagnetic crystal

A new mechanism is proposed for continuous frequency down-conversion of acoustic waves propagating in a paramagnetic crystal at a low temperature in an applied magnetic field. A transverse hypersonic pulse generating a carrier-free longitudinal strain pulse via nonlinear effects is scattered by the generated pulse. This leads to a Stokes shift in the transverse hypersonic wave proportional to its intensity, and both pulses continue to propagate in the form of a mode-locked soliton. As the transverse-pulse frequency is Stokes shifted, its spectrum becomes narrower. This process can be effectively implemented only if the linear group velocity of the transverse hypersonic pulse equals the phase velocity of the longitudinal strain wave. These velocities are renormalized by spin-phonon coupling and can be made equal by adjusting the magnitude of the applied magnetic field. The transverse structure of the soliton depends on the sign of the group velocity dispersion of the transverse component. When the dispersion is positive, planar solitons can develop whose transverse component has a topological defect of dark vortex type and longitudinal component has a hole. In the opposite case, the formation of two-component acoustic “bullets” or vortices localized in all directions is possible.     

Estimate of inhomogeneous line broadening in steady-state magnetic resonance

We have established relationships between the experimental and theoretical absorption and dispersion line parameters for steady-state magnetic resonance, allowing us to determine both the field characteristics (amplitude of the a.c. magnetic field) and the relaxation characteristics (longitudinal and transverse relaxation times) of the object under study.     

Light slowing-down effects caused by nonlinear interactions of radiations in two-level systems

The effect of slowing down pulses of probe radiation in a medium consisting of two-level quantum systems whose longitudinal and transverse relaxation times strongly differ is studied. The conditions for the occurrence of “slow light” in a transparency window are obtained. Regimes are discovered in which the medium becomes transparent or amplifies the probe radiation, with the high dispersion of the refractive index being conserved. The parameters at which the delay time of the probe radiation reaches a maximum or the group velocity of this radiation decreases to a maximal possible value under the condition of exact resonance with the strong field are found.     

On the nonlinear propagation of few-cycle pulses in a uniaxial crystal

The soliton-like dynamics of few-cycle optical pulses propagating in a uniaxial crystal at an arbitrary angle to the optic axis is analytically studied. Solutions describing the one-dimensional dynamics of pulses representing coupled states of the ordinary and extraordinary field components are analyzed. The ordinary component can contain an arbitrary number (down to one period) of optical oscillations, whereas the extraordinary component is a unipolar video pulse. The effect of small-scale transverse perturbations on the propagation of such pulses is considered. Regions of values of parameters of the medium and the pulse in which the propagation is stable are found. The spectrum of the ordinary component is shown to substantially depend on the sign of the birefringence of the crystal as well as on the angle at which the pulse propagates with respect to the optic axis.     

Effect of transverse entrainment of charge carriers by the field of two electromagnetic waves in a semiconductor

The effect of transverse entrainment of charge carriers by two electromagnetic waves propagating in mutually perpendicular directions in a semiconductor with a parabolic dispersion law has been investigated. The dc component of the electric current density that appears in the direction perpendicular to the wave vectors has been calculated in the constant relaxation time approximation. It has been shown that the transverse dc current vanishes at a particular phase difference of the incident waves determined by the relaxation time of charge carriers in the material.     

Nonlinear focusing of picosecond baseband pulses in paraelectric crystals

The nonlinear baseband electromagnetic pulses of a wide spectrum that lies in terahertz (THz) range are investigated theoretically in the paraelectric crystals like SrTiO₃ at the temperatures ~ 77 K. The frequency dispersion is important in THz range there. The dominating nonlinearity of the crystal is cubic. The frequency dispersion and nonlinearity correspond to existence of envelope solitons and the modulation instability of long input envelope pulses, whereas in the transverse direction the modulation instability is absent. When the nonlinear wave is uniform in the transverse direction, the existence of soliton-like baseband pulses without a carrier frequency has been demonstrated. There exists a possibility to generate the regular sequences of short baseband pulses due to the nonlinearity in the paraelectric crystals. The nonlinear focusing of input long baseband pulses by the exciting antenna results in the formation of extremely short baseband pulses localized both in the longitudinal and transverse directions.     

Specific features of the approximation of the dielectric spectra of alkylcyanobiphenyl liquid crystals

The frequency dependences of the longitudinal and transverse permittivities of oriented nematic liquid crystals belonging to the alkylcyanobiphenyl group nCB (n=5–8) are measured in the relaxation region in the meter and decimeter wavelength ranges. It is established that the dispersion of the longitudinal permittivity is well approximated by the sum of two Debye processes with different relaxation times. The frequency dependence of the transverse permittivity is represented by the dispersion relation with a continuous distribution of relaxation times in a specified time range. It is demonstrated that, in the high-frequency range (f>200 MHz), in which the dielectric spectra exhibit a number of weakly pronounced dispersion features, the total dispersion of the permittivity is adequately described by the sum of relaxation and resonance processes.     

Design of self-refocused pulses under short relaxation times

The effect of using self-refocused RF pulses of comparable duration to relaxation times is studied in detail using numerical simulation. Transverse magnetization decay caused by short T2 and longitudinal component distortion due to short T1 are consistent with other studies. In order to design new pulses to combat short T1 and T2 the relaxation terms are directly inserted into the Bloch equations. These equations are inverted by searching the RF solution space using simulated annealing global optimization technique. A new T2-decay efficient excitation pulse is created (SDETR: single delayed excursion T2 resistive) which is also energy efficient. Inversion pulses which improve the inverted magnetization profile and achieve better suppression of the remaining transverse magnetization are also created even when both T1 and T2 are short. This is achieved, however, on the expense of a more complex B1 shape of larger energy content.     

掺镱光纤放大器中自相似脉冲传输特性研究

研究了高阶色散和增益色散影响下,自相似脉冲在掺镱光纤放大器中的传输特性.从解析求解和数值模拟两方面分别阐述了初始脉冲能量、三阶色散和偶极子驰豫时间对脉冲传输质量的影响.结果表明,当传输考虑三阶色散效应时,伴随着脉冲啁啾非线性区域的扩大,啁啾中心随着色散系数取值的大小和正负前、后移动,脉冲峰向一侧延迟,中心位置发生漂移.增益色散对脉冲放大起到滤波作用,对自相似脉冲具有压窄效应.证实了具有一定驰豫时间的增益介质能够维持自相似孤子波的稳定传输.     

Another approach to protons with constricted mobility in white matter: pilot studies using wideline and high-resolution NMR spectroscopy

We report a new approach for the identification of an independent method of studying the semi-solid pool of protons, i.e., protons with constrained motion as a result of being bound to lipid and protein matrices. These protons cannot be observed using conventional imaging techniques since their transverse relaxation times are much shorter than the minimum echo times that are currently available on clinical scanners. In this pilot study, in vitro multicomponent transverse relaxation experiments were made on human white matter slices, fixed in formalin (7 normal and 5 with multiple sclerosis). The transverse relaxation decay curves were multiexponential and were decomposed to yield three primary components. The shortest T(2) component that we obtained (a component too short to be seen by in vivo methods) was of the order of microseconds. We hypothesize that this might correspond to the macromolecular pool of lipid protons trapped within the myelin sheaths. To our knowledge, this is the first attempt at extracting this ultra short T(2) component from human white matter. Subsequently, an attempt was made to directly detect the lipid protons in a proton NMR spectrum and, if possible, measure their concentration in some of the tissues, using the technique of magic angle spinning.     

Spin Hall effect of a light beam in anisotropic metamaterials

<正>We theoretically investigate a switchable spin Hall effect of light(SHEL) in reflection for three specific dispersion relations at an air-anisotropic metamaterial interface.The displacements of horizontal and vertical polarization components vary with the incident angle at different dispersion relations.The transverse displacements can be obtained with the relevant metamaterial whose refractive index can be arbitrarily tailed.The results of the SHEL in the metarnaterial provide a new way for manipulating the transverse displacements of a specific polarization component.     

Self-focusing and defocusing of self-similar π pulses in an amplifying two-level medium

The effect of transverse perturbations on the propagation of electromagnetic π pulses in an amplifying two-level medium is studied. The cases of quasi-monochromatic and extremely short pulses are considered. The equations describing the behavior of the transverse size of the pulse during its propagation in the medium are derived. It is shown that, if the ratios of the diffraction length to the length of dispersion spreading are smaller than certain critical values, self-focusing regimes are realized for both types of pulses. Otherwise, at a finite distance, blowup of defocusing occurs, after which the amplified pulse propagates as if it is a one-dimensional pulse, with the velocity equal to the velocity of light in vacuum. Similarities and distinctions in the dynamics of propagation of extremely short and quasi-monochromatic pulses are indicated.