Patent ID: 8228062

Claim:
A magnetic resonance process for selective spatial excitation of a sample volume in a uniform magnetic field, the process comprising: controlling an RF coil array adapted to produce a plurality of B1 fields within the sample volume; applying a sequence of refocusing pulses with n of the B1 fields, where n is strictly larger than the number of dimensions in which the spatial region is bounded, and each of the n B1 fields has a substantially uniform amplitude, and a respective, different phase gradient, over the sample volume, and accordingly has a respective, different k-space focus, so that each refocusing pulse reflects a k-space weighting function about the k-space focus of the respective B1 field to change the k-space weighting function with respect to n−1 of the k-space foci; and applying a sequence of small flip angle pulses with at least one B1 field interspersed between the refocusing pulses, the small flip angle pulses having intensities and durations modulated to distribute the deposition of energy in the k-space weighting function in accordance with a desired selective spatial excitation.