Design of calibration-free RF pulses for T2-weighted single-slab 3D turbo-spin-echo sequences at 7T utilizing parallel transmission

Multi-Slice T2-weighted MR imaging is a fundamental technique in brain imaging but suffers from field inhomogeneities at ultra-high field systems. In this work we present a pulse design method which provides slab-selective universal pulses with phase-coherent excitation profiles over selected brain regions. Applied in a 3D variable flip angle turbo-spin-echo (TSE) sequence, the pulses achieve superior SNR compared to multi-slice TSE imaging and B1+ field inhomogeneity mitigation.