Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy using Squid Detection

Abstract

<p>Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), with its unique capability to image soft tissues, has become one of the most powerful nondestructive diagnostic tools in medicine. MRI is still a developing methodology in non-medical nondestructive evaluation (NDE); this is because solids with their broader nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) linewidths are more difficult to image than biological tissue. However, recently MRI has been attracting increasing interest in a number of areas where the NMR linewidth is not as serious a problem. These include fluid flow determination in materials including porous media [1], detecting defects in ceramics still in the green (unfired) state [2], and the evaluation of polymers such as rubber and other elastomers [3]. Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices, or SQUIDs, with their great sensitivity and broad bandwidth have the potential to enhance MRI in both medical and non-medical applications.</p>