Radiation damping strongly perturbs remote resonances in presence of homo-nuclear mixing sequences

In this work, it is experimentally shown that the weak oscillating magnetic field (known as the “radiation damping” field) caused by the inductive coupling between the transverse magnetization of nuclei and the radio frequency circuit perturbs remote resonances when homo-nuclear total correlation mixing sequences are applied. Numerical simulations are used to rationalize this effect.

Review of Domain Wall Dynamics Engineering in Magnetic Microwires

The influence of magnetic anisotropy, post-processing conditions, and defects on the domain wall (DW) dynamics of amorphous and nanocrystalline Fe-, Ni-, and Co-rich microwires with spontaneous and annealing-induced magnetic bistability has been thoroughly analyzed, with an emphasis placed on the influence of magnetoelastic, induced and magnetocrystalline anisotropies. Minimizing magnetoelastic anisotropy, either by the selection of a chemical composition with a low magnetostriction coefficient or by heat treatment, is an appropriate route for DW dynamics optimization in magnetic microwires. Stress-annealing allows further improvement of DW velocity and hence is a promising method for optimization of DW dynamics in magnetic microwires. The origin of current-driven DW propagation in annealing-induced magnetic bistability is attributed to magnetostatic interaction of outer domain shell with transverse magnetization orientation and inner axially magnetized core. The beneficial influence of the stress-annealing on DW dynamics has been explained considering that it allows increasing of the volume of outer domain shell with transverse magnetization orientation at the expense of decreasing the radius of inner axially magnetized core. Such transverse magnetic anisotropy can similarly affect the DW dynamics as the applied transverse magnetic field and hence is beneficial for DW dynamics optimization. Stress-annealing allows designing the magnetic anisotropy distribution more favorable for the DW dynamics improvement. Results on DW dynamics in various families of nanocrystalline microwires are provided. The role of saturation magnetization on DW mobility improvement is discussed. The DW shape, its correlation with the magnetic anisotropy constant and the microwire diameter, as well as manipulation of the DW shape by induced magnetic anisotropy are discussed. The engineering of DW propagation through local stress-annealing and DW collision is demonstrated.

Spatio-temporal encoding by quadratic gradients in magnetic resonance imaging

SPatio-temporal ENcoding (SPEN) MRI is a non-Fourier imaging technique that encodes the spatial information in such a way that there is a one-to-one correspondence between the signal intensity as a function of time and the spin density at the corresponding position. In current spatio-temporal encoding methods imparting a quadratic phase – that is the phase of the transverse magnetization depends as a quadratic function of the spatial coordinates – onto the transverse magnetization is the first crucial step. Usually, this is achieved by simultaneous application of a frequency-swept (chirp) pulse and a linear magnetic field gradient. In this work, we show that it can be advantageous to use quadratic encoding gradients for this purpose. By avoiding chirp pulses one can achieve much smaller specific absorption rates (SARs), and shorter echo times (TEs), while the spatial resolution, the field of view (FOV), and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) are the same as in SPEN if one uses similar parameters. In addition, the proposed sequence can readily be used for multi-slice applications.

Modelling surface NMR spin-echo experiments in a heterogeneous B1 field

SUMMARY Surface nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements show great promise for characterization of subsurface water content, pore-sizes and permeability. The link between surface NMR and pore-size/permeability is founded in the connection between the NMR signal's time dependence and the geometry of the pore-space. To strengthen links between the NMR signal and pore-geometry multipulse surface NMR sequences have been developed to estimate the parameter T2, which carries a strong link to pore-geometry and has formed the basis for NMR-based permeability estimation in the petroleum industry for decades. Producing reliable subsurface characterizations from multipulse surface NMR measurements that measure T2 requires that the forward model is able to accurately predict the transverse magnetization at the time when the measurement occurs. Traditional surface NMR T2 forward models employ an analytic expression for the transverse magnetization, an expression developed in the context of laboratory NMR experiments conducted under conditions significantly different from surface NMR and which require several assumptions to simplify the underlying Bloch equation. To investigate the reliability of this analytic expression under surface NMR conditions, a synthetic comparison is performed where the analytic expression is contrasted against the transverse magnetization predicted from a solution of the full-Bloch equation without the same simplifying assumptions and which can appropriately weight heterogeneity in the applied and background magnetic fields. The comparison shows that the analytic expression breaks down in a range of conditions typical to surface NMR measurements.

Magnetic resonance with number states versus coherent states

In this paper, we study the interaction of quantized radio-frequency (rf)/microwave-field with nuclear spin in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) or electron spin in Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR). In magnetic resonance experiments, interaction of quantized rf-field leads to entanglement of spin with the electromagnetic field. In an entangled state, the spins are depolarized with no net transverse magnetization, which cannot give a detectable signal in inductive detection (or Q detection) that detects transverse magnetization. We show that when the electromagnetic field is in coherent state, inductive detection becomes possible. We use the mathematics of quantum optics to study the evolution of a coherent rf-field with a sample of all polarized spins. We show that evolution can be solved in closed form as a separable state of rf-field and spin ensemble, where spin ensemble evolves according to Bloch equations in an rf-field. We extend the analysis and results to a spin ensemble with Boltzmann polarization. The rabi frequency and coupling strength of spins to rf-field depends on number state of the rf-field. We show that in interaction with a coherent rf-field, this variation in coupling strength introduces negligible error.