A surface coil is essentially a loop of conducting material, such as copper tubing. The in-bore solenoidal sending coil is used as the transmitter of RF energy. This type of receiver coil is placed directly on or over the region of interest for increased magnetic sensitivity. The loop may form various shapes and be bent slightly to conform to the imaged body part. Surface coils have a good SNR for tissues adjacent to the coil and because the signal decrease with the distance, an eligibility homogeneity correction will equalize this over the field of view. A rule of thumb for surface coils is that the sensitivity decreases appreciably beyond a distance equal to the diameter of the coil.
The positioning of the coil is an important determinant of performance. As only the region close to the surface coil will contribute to the signal, there is an improvement in the SNR for these regions, compared to the use of receiver coils that surround the appropriate part of the body. These coils are specifically designed for localized body regions, and provide improved signal to noise ratios by limiting the spatial extent of the excitation or reception.

See also the related poll result: '3rd party coils are better than the original manufacturer coils'

T2 weighted imaging relies upon local dephasing of spins following the application of the transverse energy pulse. The contrast of a T2 weighted image is predominantly dependent on T2 and the T2 dependence will be increased by using a long echo time.
Fat has a shorter T2 time than water and relaxes or decays more readily than water. Since the amount of transverse magnetization in fat is small, fat generates very little signal on a strong T2 weighted contrast image and appears intermediate to dark. The T2 weighting is stronger with a longer TE. Water has a very high T2 constant, therefore has very high T2 signal and thus appears bright on a T2 contrast image. Cerebral white matter (fat containing) is less intense than grey matter. Flowing blood (flow effects) and haematomas (haemoglobin, haemosiderin) have a variable signal intensity on MR images.
Images created with TR's and TE's to enhance T2 contrast are referred to as T2 weighted images. Both T1 and T2 weighted images are acquired for most medical MRI examinations.

A state in which all parts of a system are at the same effective temperature, in particular where the relative alignment of the spins with the magnetic field is determined solely by the thermal energy of the system (in which case the relative numbers of spins with different alignments will be given by the Boltzmann distribution).

The xy component of the net magnetization vector at right angles to the main magnetic field. The precession of the transverse magnetization at the Larmor frequency is responsible for the detectable MRI signal. In the absence of externally applied RF energy, the transverse magnetization will decay to zero with a characteristic time constant of T2, or more strictly T2*.

(V) The SI unit of electric potential.
Definition: The amount of potential energy present per unit of charge. 1 volt representing a potential of 1 joule per coulomb of charge.
The unit is named for the Italian scientist Count Alessandro Volta.