Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has became an unavoidable medical tool in spite of its poor sensitivity. This fact motivates the efforts to enhance the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) probe performance. Thus, the nuclear spin excitation and detection, classically performed using radio-frequency coils, are required to be highly sensitive and homogeneous. The space harmonics suppression (SHS) method, already demonstrated to construct coil producing homogenous static magnetic field, is used in this work to design radio-frequency coils. The SHS method is used to determine the distribution of the electrical conductive wires which are organized in a saddle-coil-like configuration. The theoretical study of these SHS coils allows one to expect an enhancement of the signal-to-noise ratio with respect to saddle coil. Coils prototypes were constructed and tested to measure 1H NMR signal at a low magnetic field (8 mT) and perform MRI acquired at a high magnetic field (3 T). The signal-to-noise ratios of these SHS coils are compared to the one of saddle coil and birdcage (in the 3 T case) of the same size under the same pulse sequence conditions demonstrating the performance enhancement allowed by the SHS coils.

Today, in the presence of global warming, understanding how plants respond to drought stress is essential to meet the challenge of developing new cultivars and new irrigation strategies, consistent with the maintenance of crop productivity. In this context, the study of the relation between plants and water is of central interest for modeling their responses to biotic and abiotic constraints. Paradoxically, there are very few direct and noninvasive methods to quantify and measure the level and the flow of water in plants. The present work aims to develop a noninvasive methodology for living plant based on nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) at low magnetic field and imaging (MRI) to tackle the issue of water quantity in plants. For this purpose, a portable NMR device measuring the signal level at 8 mT was built. This instrument addresses specific challenges such as miniaturization, accessibility, and overheating in order to maintain the plant intact of time over long period. Time dependence of the water content in sorghum plants is reported under abiotic stress as well as the fraction of transpirable soil water and the photosynthesis activity through the leaves. At high magnetic field (9.4 T), T2 maps were acquired on the same sorghum plants at two time points. The combination of these approaches allows us to identify ecophysiological biomarkers of drought stress. One particular interesting result concerns the spatial distribution of water in two anatomically contrasted sorghum genotypes.

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments are usually carried out at very high and homogenous magnetic fields. However, portable systems have emerged in recent years at low fields, offering many advantages like easier maintenance and open design that permit us to imagine a variety of coil configurations in order to maximize the homogeneity of the static field B0 and the radio-frequency field B1. The wire winding distribution based on space harmonics suppression (SHS) of the cosine current density distribution offers new possibilities of producing homogenous static fields B0. In this work, an extension of the SHS method, allowing homogeneity enhancement and flexibility of the coil design, is presented. The efficiency of the method is demonstrated through the construction of homogenous magnetic field coils dedicated to a very low magnetic field (8 mT) 1H NMR spectrometer. The performance of these coils in terms of magnetic field intensity and homogeneity as well as self-heating behavior is compliant with in planta experiments for agronomic studies.

The climate warming implies an increase of stress of plants (drought and torrential rainfall). The understanding of plant behavior, in this context, takes a major importance and sap flow measurement in plants remains a key issue for plant understanding. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) which is well known to be a powerful tool to access water quantity can be used to measure moving water. We describe a novel flow-MRI method which takes advantage of inflow slice sensitivity. The method involves the slice selectivity in the context of multi slice spin echo sequence. Two sequences such as a given slice is consecutively inflow and outflow sensitive are performed, offering the possiblility to perform slow flow sensitive imaging in a quite straigthforward way. The method potential is demonstrated by imaging both a slow flow measurement on a test bench (as low as 10 μm.s−1) and the Poiseuille’s profile of xylemian sap flow velocity in the xylematic tissues of a tomato plant stem.

Electromagnetic coils are ubiquitously used in the modern world in motors, antennas, etc. In many applications (magnetic field coil calibration and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and imaging) there is a strong need for a homogeneous magnetic field. In this paper, we propose a simple modelling based on serial Fourier decomposition allowing the determination of the electrical conductor distribution to make the magnetic field homogeneous. The method is valid both for plane and axisymmetric geometries. The method allows the retrieval of the classical configurations of saddle coil for the plane geometry and Helmholtz coil for the axisymmetric one. The method is generalized for any number of electrical conductors and brings the perspective of new homogeneous magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) coil configuration.

We report the design of a new type of scanning near-field optical microscopy probes combining the advantages of both tapered optical fibres type and cantilever type commercial scanning near-field optical microscopy probes. The material is an organomineral synthesized by the sol-gel method. This material matches mechanical and optical performances for such a scanning near-field optical microscopy probe fabrication. Numerical calculations were carried out using finite element method in order to study the optical transmission of the probe in emission and collection modes. The influence of the probe geometry on the intensity distribution in the vicinity of the aperture and in the extremity of the cantilever is studied in details.

Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (NMRI) is a powerful tool for biological investigations. Nevertheless, the imaging resolution performance results in the combination of the magnetic field (B0) and the antenna efficiency. This latter one results in a compromise between the size of the sample, the location of the region of interest and the homogeneity requirement. In the context of spinal cord imaging on mice, a ribbon solenoid coil is used to enhance the efficiency of the MRI experiment. This paper details the calculation of the local magnetization contribution to the induced voltage of MRI coils. The modeling is illustrated on ribbon solenoid antennas used in emitter–receiver mode for the study. The analytical model, which takes into account the emitting mode, the receiving step and the imaging sequence, is compared to the measurement performed on a 9.4 T VARIAN MRI apparatus. The efficiency of the antenna, in terms of signal to noise ratio, is significantly enhanced with respect to a commercial quadrature volumic antenna, given a significant advantage for the study of spinal cord injuries.

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy and imaging can be classified as inductive techniques working in the nearto far-field regimes. We investigate an alternative capacitive detection with the use of micrometer sized probes positioned at sub wavelength distances of the sample in order to characterize and model evanescent electromagnetic fields originating from NMR phenomenon. We report that in this experimental configuration the available NMR signal is one order of magnitude larger and follows an exponential decay inversely proportional to the size of the emitters. Those investigations open a new road to a better understanding of the evanescent waves component in NMR with the opportunity to perform localized spectroscopy and imaging. NMR principles and Evanescent Waves The principle of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance is based on the detection of the magnetization originating from an ensemble of spins located on the atomic nucleus [1–3]. In living sciences, NMR spectroscopy and imaging of H, C, Na and P are of great interest and extensively studied [4, 5]. The sample is polarized by a static magnetic field B0 and spatially encoded by pulse gradients, giving to the nuclear spin distinct precessional movements at well separated Larmor frequencies. Radiofrequency pulses are used to tilt the axis of the magnetization; when the spin system recovers its equilibrium, it generates an electromagnetic field which is classically detected using an inductive coupling in the radiative near-field regime [6]. Radio frequencies are usually emitted from the sample in the range from 1MHz to 1 GHz. A good receiving setup can be made generally from a coil wrapped around the sample, a loopless catheter antenna [7] with a tuning/matching circuit [8] or electric potential sensor capacitively coupled to the sample [9]. In this contribution, we propose a completely different approach, with the use of micrometer-sized Evanescent Waves probe (EW-probe) working in a capacitive mode [10] positioned in the vicinity of the object of interest at submillimetric distances, well shorter than the wavelength of the radiated radio-frequency signal. Over the past decades, near-field PLOSONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0144483 January 11, 2016 1 / 8 a11111

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy and imaging can be classified as inductive techniques working in the near- to far-field regimes. We investigate an alternative capacitive detection with the use of micrometer sized probes positioned at sub wavelength distances of the sample in order to characterize and model evanescent electromagnetic fields originating from NMR phenomenon. We report that in this experimental configuration the available NMR signal is one order of magnitude larger and follows an exponential decay inversely proportional to the size of the emitters. Those investigations open a new road to a better understanding of the evanescent waves component in NMR with the opportunity to perform localized spectroscopy and imaging.

We present the design, batch fabrication sequences and mechanical characterization of an optical nearfield probe. The probe structure is made of a hybrid organo-mineral material synthesized using a sol-gel process. The cantilever-type probe was designed for Scanning Near-field Optical Microscopy (SNOM) in collection mode and its design was optimized by simulations. The mechanical properties of the probes were measured and topographical images of a standard surface obtained with the fabricated probes are presented. (c) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

In this paper, a nonintrusive method of current cartography inside a component is presented. The measurement of the current density in metallized film capacitors has numerous applications, including nondestructive testing, new component design, and validation of existing models on current distribution in capacitors. The method is based upon the measurement of the magnetic field created by a capacitor and the current density reconstruction by means of inverse problem methodology. The experimental setup comprises of a radio-frequency generator operating between 10 to 1000 MHZ, a near-field probe, an XY positioning table and a computer used for control and data acquisition. The first results confirm that, near some frequencies, the current density in the capacitor becomes nonhomogeneous and increases dramatically in some areas.