An artificial dielectric slab for ultra high-field MRI: Proof of concept

•First ever successful application of artificial dielectric in MRI.•Transmit field can be increased in the area of the parietal lobes at 7 T.•The field increase of artificial dielectric slab is similar to dielectric pad.•Artificial dielectric slab was designed using cheap and available FR4 substrates.•The artificial dielectric was designed to be non-resonant and almost non-dispersive.