Chemistry

A general signal expression with power-law decay for spin self-diffusion in a nonlinear gradient field

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Signal attenuation in diffusion NMR and MRI is commonly described using Gaussian phase statistics, which fail under nonlinear gradient fields. Using the effective phase diffusion method (EPDM) and the short-gradient-pulse approximation, we show that signal attenuation arising from Brownian self-diffusion of spins near the origin of a nonlinear gradient field follows a power-law decay rather than conventional exponential attenuation. We propose a compact signal expression that agrees with numerical and simulation results over a broad attenuation range. Within the EPDM framework, the diffusion phase variance naturally incorporates finite gradient-pulse-width effects, enabling extension to general gradient waveforms. Copyright © 2026. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Publication Title

Chemical Physics Letters

Publication Date

10-2026

Volume

897

ISSN

0009-2614

DOI

10.1016/j.cplett.2026.142969

Keywords

non-Gaussian phase, nonlinear gradient field, power-law decay, spin diffusion

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