Shaping the Sensitive Volume of a Single-Sided NMR-Sensor to Profile Cylindrical Samples with High Resolution

This work reports the construction of a single-sided magnet generating a sensitive volume with adjustable curvature. It is useful to profile cylindrical samples with high depth resolution. The sensor geometry is based on the Profile NMR-MOUSE, which generates a parabolic field profile with a quadratic coefficient that decreases with the distance from the magnet surface. Such field profiles approximate cylinder walls within limited angular range with negligible deviation. Then, by varying the working depth, shells of different diameter in the sample can be matched. Simulation and experiments conducted on phantoms confirm that a depth resolution of about 35 μm can be obtained. The sensor was used to profile the structure of a cylindric air spring bellows with high resolution. Besides resolving the fiber layers used to reinforce the rubber matrix, the ingress of hexane was detected via T ₂ changes of the material.