RESUMO
Anisotropy of diffusion properties in a specimen plays a key role in numerous applications of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging, like non-invasive tracking of fibers in the central nervous system. We suggest that contrasting fiber structures with certain diameters could be improved if second-order effects are taken into account. We introduce a procedure consisting of two standard diffusion NMR experiments differing in their gradient pulse characteristics. These two echo signals will be called the background and principal signals. We show that the difference obtained by subtracting one echo signal from the other has either typical or anomalous properties. In the typical case, as the duration of the gradient pulse in the second experiment is set to smaller and smaller values, the difference from the background echo signal tends toward its maximum. In contrast, in the anomalous case the difference between the background and the principal signals has a maximum at a certain nonzero duration of the pulse in the second experiment. This critical duration is determined by different characteristics, including the diameters of fibers. For this anomalous effect to take place the fast surface diffusion channel coupled to the surrounding media is required. The diffusion of magnetic molecules along the surface of restricted media and the coupling of the surface and the bulk translational motions can strongly modify the echo attenuation NMR signal. The origin of this strong anomalous effect is the change of the symmetry of the lowest diffusion eigenmode of the system. We illustrate the effect of surface diffusion for a cylindrically symmetric system and describe the experimental conditions under which the anomalous behavior of the echo signals can be observed.
