Introduction

The present invention concerns an apparatus to increase the efficiency in the transmission phase and the sensitivity in the reception phase, in specific regions of space, of the magnetic resonance technique (NMR, MRI, EPR, EPRI) through the use of at least one component based on meta-materials (MM), of appropriate geometry and electrical properties.

Technical features

By positioning a selected metamaterial in a suitable geometry, in the space delimited by the coil and the sample under examination, it is possible to use the surface plasmonic resonances induced in the metamaterial by the RF coils to amplify the intensity of the magnetic field in the spatial region of the sample under examination, thus improving the intensity of the signal transmission and/or the sensitivity of its detection. By making the magnetic resonance technique more effective, the proposed method is applied both at the sensor level for NMR/EPR spectroscopy applications and in the field of clinical and preclinical MRI/EPRI imaging.

Possible Applications

• Diagnostics;
• NMR/EPR sensors;
• Clinical imaging;
• Pre-clinical imaging.

Advantages

• Increased sensitivity by a variable factor depending on the losses introduced by the metamaterial;
• Reduction of the acquisition time;
• Increase in spatial resolution.