NMR DETECTION AT 8.9mT WITH A GMR BASED SENSOR COUPLED TO A SUPERCONDUCTING Nb FLUX TRANSFORMER

This study presents NMR signal detection by means of a superconducting channel consisting of a Nb surface detection coil inductively coupled to a YBCO mixed sensor. The NMR system operates at a low-field (8.9 mT) in a magnetically shielded room suitable for magnetoencephalographic (MEG) recordings. The main field is generated by a compact solenoid and the geometry of the pick-up coil has been optimized to provide high spatial sensitivity in the NMR field of view. The Nb detection coil is coupled to the mixed sensor through a Nb input coil. The mixed sensor consists of a superconducting YBCO loop with 2 um constriction above which two Giant MagnetoResistance sensors are placed in a half-bridge configuration to detect changes of the bridge voltage as a function of the flux through the YBCO loop. The sensitivity of the receiving channel is calibrated experimentally. The measured spatial sensitivity is in agreement with the simulations and is ~10 times better than that of the stand-alone mixed sensor. A NMR echo at 375 kHz shows a SNR only a factor 4 smaller than a tuned room temperature coil tightly wound around the sample, with a noise level which is a factor 3 better than for the volume coil. Our results suggest that mixed sensors are suitable for the integration of low-field MRI and MEG in a hybrid apparatus, where MEG and MRI would be recorded by SQUIDs and mixed sensors, respectively.