Noise-resilient multi-frequency surface sensor for nuclear quadrupole resonance.

A planar nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) sensor has been developed. The sensor is resilient to environmental noise and is capable of simultaneous independent multi-frequency operation. The device was constructed as an open multimodal birdcage structure, in which the higher modes, generally not used in magnetic resonance, are utilized for NQR detection. These modes have smooth distributions of the amplitudes of the corresponding radiofrequency magnetic fields everywhere along the sensor's surface. The phases of the fields, on the other hand, are cyclically shifted across the sensor's surface. Noise signals coming from distant sources, therefore, induce equal-magnitude cyclically phase-shifted currents in different parts of the sensor. When such cyclically phase-shifted currents arrive at the mode connection point, they destructively interfere with each other and are cancelled out. NQR signals of polycrystalline or disordered substances, however, are efficiently detected by these modes because they are insensitive to the phases of the excitation/detection. No blind spots exist along the sensor's surface. The sensor can be used for simultaneous detection of one or more substances in locations with environmental noise.

Three-dimensional high-inductance birdcage coil for NQR applications.

A birdcage coil capable of operating simultaneously and independently in three orthogonal dimensions has been developed. A co-rotational end-ring mode producing an RF field in the longitudinal direction was utilized in addition to the two common transverse orthogonal modes. Two conductor turns were used for each of the coil's windows, increasing its inductance by a factor of four, thereby, making the coil suitable for low-frequency applications. Two or three-frequency detection can be easily carried out with this device. Orthogonality of the coil's channels allows arbitrarily close frequency positioning of each resonant mode, potentially useful in wide-line NQR studies, in which simultaneous excitation/detection of signals from three adjacent regions of a single wide line can be performed. The coil's performance was evaluated using a three-dimensional scheme, in which a circularly polarized experiment was combined with a linearly polarized measurement at another frequency, resulting in SNR improvement by 55%.

RF probe recovery time reduction with a novel active ringing suppression circuit.

A simple Q-damper device for active probe recovery time reduction is introduced along with a straightforward technique for the circuit's component value optimization. The device is inductively coupled to a probe through a coupling transformer positioned away from the main coil, which makes the design independent of the coil type being used. The Q-damper is a tuned circuit, which is resonant at the same frequency as the probe and can be actively interrupted. When the circuit is interrupted, it is detuned and, thereby, is uncoupled from the probe, which operates normally. Turning the device on leads to re-coupling of the circuits and causes splitting of the probe's resonance line, which can be observed through its drive port. A resistance of an appropriate value is introduced into the Q-damper circuit, resulting in smoothing of the resonance splitting into one broad line, representing the coupled system's low-Q state, in which the energy stored in the main coil is efficiently dissipated. The circuit's component values are optimized by monitoring the shape of this low-Q state. Probe recovery time reduction by, approximately, an order of magnitude has been obtained with this device. Application of the device during an NQR experiment led to an increase in the signal-to-noise ratio by a factor of 4.9.

Open half-volume quadrature transverse electromagnetic coil for high-field magnetic resonance imaging.

A half-volume quadrature head transverse electromagnetic (TEM) coil has been constructed for 4 T imaging applications. This coil produces a sufficiently large homogeneous B(1) field region for the use as a volume coil. It provides superior transmission efficiency, resulting in significantly lower power deposition, as well as greater sensitivity and improved patient comfort and accessibility compared with conventional full-volume coils. Additionally, this coil suppresses the RF penetration artifact that distorts the RF magnetic field profile and alters the intensity in high-field images recorded with linear surface and volume coils. These advantages make it possible to apply this device as an efficient transmit/receive coil for high-field imaging with a restricted field of view.