High-T/sub c/ Superconducting receiving coils for nuclear magnetic resonance imaging

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) microscopy poses high demands on the sensitivity of the receiver coils. We have developed high-T/sub c/ superconducting (HTS) tape receiving coils for nuclear magnetic resonance imaging. The surface receiver coil is constructed from high-T/sub c/ Bi/sub 2/Sr/sub 2/Ca/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub y/ tape coil and cooled in liquid nitrogen temperature. The desired receiver surface coil is numerically simulated and optimized to have high value of the unloaded quality factor. With this HTS receiver coil we have obtained significant improvement in the unloaded Q-value, loaded Q-value and substantial gain in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The SNR improvement of 2.4 was achieved in the kiwi imaging and improvement of 2.7 in the braining imaging of rat at 300 K. The MRI microscopy is tested and compared the results with copper receiver.