Optimized B0 and B1+ insensitive RF pulses for non-selective T2 and diffusion preparation

The performance of conventional T2 or diffusion preparation using linear phase pulses or adiabatic pulses is limited by the B1+ and B0 field inhomogeneities, particularly relevant in body imaging. In this work, we proposed a numerical optimization strategy to design RF pulse pairs for non-selective T2 or diffusion preparation that perform robustly over a wide range of B1+ and B0 variations. Phantom and in vivo experiments compared the performance of preparation using the optimized pulses to that of linear-phase and adiabatic pulses.