Transverse NMR relaxation as a probe of mesoscopic structure
arXiv:cond-mat/0210180 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.278101
Abstract
Transverse NMR relaxation in a macroscopic sample is shown to be extremely sensitive to the structure of mesoscopic magnetic susceptibility variations. Such a sensitivity is proposed as a novel kind of contrast in the NMR measurements. For suspensions of arbitrary shaped paramagnetic objects, the transverse relaxation is found in the case of a small dephasing effect of an individual object. Strong relaxation rate dependence on the objects' shape agrees with experiments on whole blood. Demonstrated structure sensitivity is a generic effect that arises in NMR relaxation in porous media, biological systems, as well as in kinetics of diffusion limited reactions.
4 pages, 3 figures