Flat pancake distant dipolar fields for enhancement of intermolecular multiple-quantum coherence signals

Intermolecular multiple-quantum coherences (iMQCs) originated from distant dipolar field (DDF) possess some appealing unique properties for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). DDF is usually induced with continuous wave (i.e., sine- or square-wave) magnetization modulation in the whole sample. In this article, a spatially localized and enhanced DDF was optimally tailored in a thin slice with an adiabatic inversion pulse. Evidence was provided to show that careful tailoring of the spatially localized DDF can generate highly efficient iMQC signals, with more than two-fold enhancement compared to the conventional sine-wave magnetization modulation method, and 1.5 times of that with the square-wave modulation under the similar condition. Theoretical predictions, simulation results, and experimental verifications agree well with each other. Practical implementation of this approach for efficient iMQC MRI was explored.