Accuracy Assessment of Simplified Computation of Active and Passive Magnetic Shielding for Optically Pumped Magnetometers

A low residual environmental magnetic field is required for the proper operation of most optically pumped magnetometers (OPMs). This is achieved using a combination of passive and active magnetic shielding. Passive magnetic shielding often uses multiple layers of highly permeable materials. A realistic two-layer magnetically shielded room (MSR) for biomagnetic measurements is numerically studied using the finite element method. A measured B-H characteristic of Mumetal is used, which is linearly extrapolated from the Rayleigh region (RR) into the low magnetic field range. This extension of the magnetization curve yields no significant differences compared to using a constant permeability value for the low magnetic field range. Furthermore, we model the MSR with only one shield and apply a simple analytical method of images (MOI). The MOI yields on average a 100-fold reduction in computation time. The relative difference of the magnetic flux density computed with MOI and finite element method (FEM) is smaller than < 1% at the center of a spherical region of interest (ROI) with a radius of 0.3 m desired from the point of magnetoencephalography (MEG) using OPMs. The achieved accuracy of the MOI makes it suitable for the optimization of active shielding coils.