Excitation performance in inhomogeneously broadened systems

The problem of predicting through numerical simulation the performance of pulse sequences applied to inhomogeneously broadened spin systems is examined. Numerical or analytical calculations of the dependence of magnetization on frequency do not lead immediately to the actual form of the spectrum in the inhomogeneously broadened case. To predict the spectrum it is usually necessary to proceed through the time domain and to take into account the fact that the experimental data of negative times are usually not accessible. These results are particularly relevant to the optimization of pulse sequences for multislice imaging at zero gap. Experimental results from high-resolution NMR and magnetic resonance imaging verify these ideas.