Keywords: Contrast mechanisms: Diffusion
This lecture will describe the array of hardware diffusion phantoms developed to help validate advanced diffusion MR methods. These physical phantoms can include liquids, solutions, liquid crystals, gels, beads, capillaries, textiles, polymer fibers, yeast cells and plants, as well as more elaborate physical assemblies and combinations of structures. Phantoms designed to validate tractography, microscopic anisotropy, restricted diffusion, inter-compartmental exchange, pseudo-diffusion/flow, and multi-parametric methods, such as relaxation-diffusion correlations, will be described and their advantages and disadvantages discussed.