The Metaslab: A combined Metamaterial and Metasurface for Improved Transmit Performance and Use as a Receive Array.

Abdominal and thoracic imaging at 3T suffers from inhomogeneous transmit fields and hot-spots in specific absorption rate (SAR) that limit image quality and imaging efficiency, respectively. We combine a lightweight metamaterial and metasurface (the ‘metaslab’) to enhance transmit efficiency and homogeneity, as well as to reduce SAR. The metaslab is further able to operate as a receive array with four distinct sensitivity patterns and sensitivity comparable to that of a conventional 4-element loop receive array. The metaslab is much lighter than comparable dielectric pads and achieves all these benefits in a similar package as a conventional coil array.