Extending the excitation sculpting concept for selective excitation

Nowadays, excitation sculpting is probably the most efficient way to achieve selectivity in an NMR experiment, since it associates very clean frequency selection with "user-friendliness." In the present report, it is shown that the excitation sculpting concept, originally based on a double pulse field gradient echo acting on a selected transverse magnetization, can be extended through new experiments designed to act on longitudinal magnetization. This leads to outstanding performances, especially when the transverse relaxation rate is a limiting factor as, for example, in the case of biological macromolecules. Several new sequences are proposed, aiming at the selection of magnetization aligned either/both on a transverse axis or/and on the z-axis. Their potentialities are illustrated in light of different applications including multiplet-selective excitation, band-selective excitation, and water suppression.