Figure 4

Transverse (T2 and T2*) relaxation processes. A diagram showing the process of transverse relaxation after a 90° rf pulse is applied at equilibrium. Initially the transverse magnetisation (red arrow) has a maximum amplitude as the population of proton magnetic moments (spins) rotate in phase. The amplitude of the net transverse magnetisation (and therefore the detected signal) decays as the proton magnetic moments move out of phase with one another (shown by the small black arrows). The resultant decaying signal is known as the Free Induction Decay (FID). The overall term for the observed loss of phase coherence (de-phasing) is T2* relaxation, which combines the effect of T2 relaxation and additional de-phasing caused by local variations (inhomogeneities) in the applied magnetic field. T2 relaxation is the result of spin-spin interactions and due to the random nature of molecular motion, this process is irreversible. T2* relaxation accounts for the more rapid decay of the FID signal, however the additional decay caused by field inhomogeneities can be reversed by the application of a 180° refocusing pulse. Both T2 and T2* are exponential processes with times constants T2 and T2* respectively. This is the time at which the magnetization has decayed to 37% of its initial value immediately after the 90° rf pulse.