Steady state effects in a two-pulse diffusion-weighted sequence

In conventional nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) diffusion measurements a significant amount of experimental time is used up by magnetization recovery, serving to prevent the formation of the steady state, as in the latter case the manifestation of diffusion is modulated by multiple applications of the pulse sequence and conventional diffusion coefficient inference procedures are generally not applicable. Here, an analytical expression for diffusion-related effects in a two-pulse NMR experiment (e.g., pulsed-gradient spin echo) in the steady state mode (with repetition times less than the longitudinal relaxation time of the sample) is derived by employing a Fourier series expansion within the solution of the Bloch-Torrey equations. Considerations are given for the transition conditions between the full relaxation and the steady state experiment description. The diffusion coefficient of a polymer solution (polyethylene glycol) is measured by a two-pulse sequence in the full relaxation mode and for a range of repetition times, approaching the rapid steady state experiment. The precision of the fitting employing the presented steady state solution by far exceeds that of the conventional fitting. Additionally, numerical simulations are performed yielding results strongly supporting the proposed description of the NMR diffusion measurements in the steady state.