Patent ID: 7649353

Claim:
A method for generating a magnetic resonance image, comprising the steps of: placing an examination subject in a homogenous static magnetic field; operating an RF resonator in a transmission mode to irradiate the examination subject with RF pulses to excite nuclear spins in the examination subject, and operating said RF resonator in a reception mode to detect magnetic resonance signals arising from the excited nuclear spins, and in at least one of said transmission mode and said reception mode, operating said RF resonator as a circularly polarized RF resonator; when operating said RF resonator as a circularly polarized RF resonator in said transmission mode, supplying said RF resonator from two separate transmission systems to irradiate the measurement subject with said RF pulses, by generating, in each of said separate transmission systems, a temporally-oscillating linear polarized electromagnetic field, and adjusting a phase relationship of the respective linearly polarized magnetic fields to cause a sum field produced in the volume of interest by a superimposition of the respective linear polarized electromagnetic fields to exhibit a right circularly polarized electromagnetic field component having a maximum amplitude locally at a site of the nuclear spins to be excited; when operating said RF resonator as a circularly polarized RF resonator in said reception mode, connecting said RF resonator to two separate reception systems, by adjusting respective reception sensitivities of the separate reception systems to detect a maximum of right circularly polarized signal components in said magnetic resonant signals with a first of said separate reception systems and a maximum of left circularly polarized signal components in said magnetic resonance signals with a second of said separate reception systems; and processing the magnetic resonance signals detected by said first and second of said separate reception systems in said reception mode to produce a magnetic resonance image therefrom.