Patent ID: 7167003

Claim:
A method of magnetic resonance (NMR) for collecting frequency sensitive image data, the method comprising the steps of: a) applying, to an object in a magnetic field, a sequence of radio frequency (RF) excitation pulses, the effect of said sequence on a spin ensemble of said object being characterized by a flip function ω αβ (t), said flip function being represented as a Fourier series of frequency components ω αβ ⁡ ( t ) = ∑ j = - ( m - 1 ) / 2 ( m - 1 ) / 2 ⁢ ω j ⁢ ⅇ ( ⅈ ⁢ 2 ⁢ π T S ⁢ j ⁢ ⁢ t ) wherein j is an integer running index, m is an integer denoting the number of frequency components of said Fourier series, i is the imaginary unit, t is time, T s is the periodicity of said flip function and ω j is the rotation rate associated with the j-th frequency component, the pulses being chosen such that each one of said rotation rates ω j is constrained not to exceed an upper limit given substantially by ω max = 2 T 1 ⁢ T 2 wherein T 1 and T 2 are the longitudinal and transversal relaxation time, respectively, of said ensemble; b) applying magnetic gradient fields to encode spatial position along at least one spatial dimension; c) recording NMR signal during a signal recording time between excitation pulses.