Two-dimensional correlation relaxation studies of cement pastes

Two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance relaxation correlation studies of cement pastes have been performed on a unilateral magnet, the Surface GARField. Through these measurements, the hydration process can be observed by monitoring the evolution of porosity. Characteristic relaxation time distributions have been observed in different cement pastes: fresh white cement, prehydrated white cement and ordinary Portland cement. The observed T(1)/T(2) ratio in these cements has been shown to agree with expectations based on high field values.     

Stray-Field Imaging of Planar Films Using a Novel Surface Coil

A surface-coil approach to stray-field magnetic resonance imaging (STRAFI), which has certain advantages for the profiling of planar films and layers, is described. Frequency-swept and Fourier-transform versions of the experiment, which are particularly suitable for use with the coil, are reported. As an example application, a latex coating is analyzed during the evaporative drying process, in which a colloidal dispersion is transformed to a continuous polymer film. The ultimate achievable resolution is discussed and contrasted with conventional MR microscopy.     

Unusual Increase of Apparent Transverse Relaxation Times in NMR Profiling of a Drying Polymer Solution

In this contribution, we present results from a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) profiling study of drying polymer solutions using polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as a model system. The careful evaluation of the experimental data reveals a surprising increase in the apparent transverse relaxation time of the water phase of the drying solution over the first few hours of drying (where usually a decrease would be expected). By using additional information obtained from diffusion-weighted profiles, we can explain this finding as the result of a strong reduction of the diffusion effect on the apparent relaxation time during this time interval. Understanding this effect provides a better basis for making optimal use of profiling NMR in drying studies and avoids possible misinterpretation on the data.     

A unilateral NMR magnet for sub-structure analysis in the built environment: the Surface GARField

A new, portable NMR magnet with a tailored magnetic field profile and a complementary radio frequency sensor have been designed and constructed for the purpose of probing in situ the sub-surface porosity of cement based materials in the built environment. The magnet is a one sided device akin to a large NMR-MOUSE with the additional design specification of planes of constant field strength /B0/ parallel to the surface. There is a strong gradient G in the field strength perpendicular to these planes. As with earlier GARField magnets, the ratio G//:B0/ is a system constant although the method of achieving this condition is substantially different. The new magnet as constructed is able to detect signals 50mm (1H NMR at 3.2 MHz) away from the surface of the magnet and can profile the surface layers of large samples to a depth of 35-40 mm by moving the magnet, and hence the resonant plane of the polarising field, relative to the sample surface. The matching radio frequency excitation/detector coil has been designed to complement the static magnetic field such that the polarising B0 and sensing B1 fields are, in principal, everywhere orthogonal. Preliminary spatially resolved measurements are presented of cement based materials, including two-dimensional T1-T2 relaxation correlation spectra.     

Dependence of the ferromagnetic resonance modes on the coupling strength in exchange-coupled trilayer structures

The dependence of the dispersion relation and the magnetization on the exchange coupling strength was calculated for a system consisting of two ferromagnetic layers exchange-coupled through a nonmagnetic spacer layer. The magnetic layers are characterized by both uniaxial and cubic magnetocrystalline anisotropies. A minimization procedure was developed which allows the resonance modes to be obtained for any magnetic field orientation and strength, as well as for any exchange coupling strength. If the antiparallel coupled film is unsaturated at resonance, the dispersion relation for both acoustic and optic modes could be rather complex, especially when the field is applied in the plane of the film.     

Vertical water distribution during the drying of polymer films cast from aqueous emulsions

We present a systematic study of the vertical uniformity of water distribution during the drying of waterborne colloidal films, testing the predictions of a Peclet number Pe defined for this system. Pe indicates the relative contributions of water evaporation and Brownian diffusion in determining the concentration profile in the vertical direction (i.e. normal to the substrate). When Pe < 1, the water concentration in films cast from an alkyd emulsion is found via magnetic-resonance profiling to be uniform with depth, which is consistent with expectations. When Pe > 1, a gradient in the water concentration develops, with less water near the interface with air. The water profiles reveal that the alkyd particles do not coalesce immediately upon contact in close-packing. At later times, a concentrated surface layer develops, but particles are not coalesced in this layer to form a continuous “skin”, but rather the structure is likely to be that of a biliquid foam. Received 20 March 2002 and Received in final form 12 June 2002     

What is the surface specific area of porous cement-based material? A nuclear magnetic relaxation dispersion approach

We propose a new NMR method to measure and follow the evolution of the surface specific area, Sp, of a porous cement-based material. This method, that does not require any preliminary drying process, uses nuclear magnetic relaxation dispersion (NMRD), the measurement of spin-lattice relaxation rate as a function of magnetic field strength or nuclear Larmor frequency. The method is applied for three different mortars samples prepared by mixing cement, sand, silica fume, water and superplasticizer with a water to cement ratio w/c=0.25, 0.38 and 0.65, respectively. The evolution of Sp grows linearly with the degree of advancement of chemical reactions measured by thermal heating and we evidence two relaxation processes independent of the w/c ratio.     

A stray-field imaging,CRAMPS and MQMAS study of the drying process of precasting materials used in a steel-making converter

Optimization of the drying process conditions in a steel-making converter in a steel works is very difficult since the process is off-line and time-consuming. However, it is important to optimize drying process conditions (temperature, surface active agents, etc.), as steam explosion can readily occur with insufficient drying time. To help understanding, we have demonstrated that we can monitor the drying of real refractory mortar with stray-field imaging. We chose, this method because of the possibility of detecting shortT ₂ components. This paper shows the effect of varying water content in different materials on the drying rate. In particular, we find that the free-water loss rate is relatively independent of water content. However the bound-water loss rate is more affected. Also, solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) (¹H-CRAMPS and²⁷Al M(3 and 5)QMAS) studies are performed to clarify the change of chemical structure by drying treatment. It is clear that imaging and solid-state NMR give useful information to optimize drying conditions. With this data, we can adjust and optimize the drying process and time in steel works.     

Influence of an electric field on the ferromagnetic resonance in a plane-layered magnetic system

The influence of an electric field on the ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) in a multilayer magnetic system consisting of two magnetic layers separated by a thin nonmagnetic interlayer has been investigated. It has been shown that, upon the excitation of magnetization oscillations by a microwave magnetic field, the eigenfrequencies of the ferromagnetic resonance depend on the stationary electric field applied in the plane of the layers. It has also been demonstrated that, in this system, high-frequency magnetization oscillations can be excited by an electric microwave field. The results of the investigation of the polarization properties of the excitation mechanism indicate that this effect can be observed experimentally.     

On the strong field dependence and nonlinear response to gadolinium contrast agent of proton transverse relaxation rates in dairy cream

Dairy cream, as a suspension of lipid droplets in water, is a potentially useful magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) phantom material and an interesting material for studying fundamental relaxation mechanisms. Here we report a strong increase in the transverse relaxation rates with field strength for both the water and lipid protons in dairy cream. Also, studies at 4.7 T reveal a nonlinear response of transverse relaxation rates with increasing concentration of a common gadolinium (Gd)-based contrast agent, including an initial decrease of water relaxation rates as measured with Hahn spin echoes at the lower Gd concentrations. The results are treated within the framework of a model in which the magnetic susceptibility difference between the lipid droplets and the aqueous phase plays the prominent role for transverse relaxation. Second-order polynomial fits of the water proton transverse relaxation rate dependence on field strength and on Gd concentration at 4.7 T provided experimental parameters from which model parameters are extracted and compared with expectations available from the literature.     

Microstructure and texture of cementitious porous materials

We have characterized the microstructure of different cementitious materials (white and Portland cement pastes, mortars, concretes) by different magnetic resonance techniques. In particular, we show how the measurement of proton nuclear magnetic spin-lattice relaxation as a function of magnetic field strength (and hence nuclear Larmor frequency) can provide reliable information on the dynamics of proton species at the surface of CSH, the specific surface area and the pore size distribution throughout the progressive hydration of cement-based materials. The measurement does not require any drying temperature modification and is sufficiently fast to be applied continuously during the progressive hydration of the material. Coupling this method with the standard proton nuclear spin relaxation and high-resolution NMR allows us to follow the development of microscale texture within the material.     

Passage of an ultrasound wave through a magnetic superlattice of finite length

The method and results of calculating the coefficient of transmission of a circular ultrasound wave through a multilayer ferromagnet/nonmagnet dielectric system with allowance for excitation of spin waves in magnetic layers are presented. The dependence of the resonance structure of the transmittance spectrum on the number of layers and the magnetic field strength has been studied.     

磁场和耦合强度对极化子有效质量和平均声子数的影响

应用线性组合算符和幺正变换方法,研究磁场和耦合强度对极化子有效质量和平均声子数的影响.数值计算表明:极化子的有效质量随耦合强度的增加而增加,这是由于耦合强度增加时,电子与晶格振动之间的相互作用增加所致;而磁场强度增加时,有效质量是先增加,达到一个极大值后,再逐渐减少,出现共振现象.平均声子数随耦合强度的增加而增加,当磁场强度大于共振时的磁场强度时,随磁场强度的增加而减少,反之,结论相反.     

一维反铁磁光子晶体光学双稳态效应研究

基于传递矩阵方法和光局域化原理, 本文研究了一维反铁磁光子晶体共振频率附近光学双稳态效应随电磁波入射角、 外磁场强度及电介质层数的变化.研究发现, 当外磁场为1.0 kG(1 G=10^-4 T)、电磁波小角度入射时, 反铁磁材料高低共振频率附近均可探测到光学双稳态效应; 当电磁波大角度入射时, 仅在高共振频率附近探测到光学双稳态效应. 然而, 当外磁场强度增加到2.0 kG时, 由于反铁磁材料的高低共振频率向两侧移动, 低共振频率附近缺失的光学双稳态频率窗口又被有效激发. 此外, 电磁波小角度入射时, 电介质层数在低共振频率附近对双稳态效应影响较明显.     

Avascular necrosis of the capitate demonstrated on a 0.064 T magnet

We report the first case of avascular necrosis of a carpal bone to be imaged on a 0.064 Tesla magnet, one of the lowest field strength magnetic resonance imaging systems currently available.     

Dynamic magnetic susceptibility of a two-layer film in a strong magnetic field

A theoretical study is reported of the effect of interlayer exchange coupling on the resonance properties of a two-layer magnetic film with “easy-axis” and “easy-plane” anisotropic layers in a strong tilted magnetic field. The dependence of the resonance fields on the tilting angle of the external magnetic field to the film has been obtained, the tensor of integrated high-frequency film susceptibility has been found, and its dependence on the strength and orientation of the external field, as well as on layer thickness, has been analyzed. The results obtained agree with the available experimental data.     

Spatial and temporal mapping of water content across Nafion membranes under wetting and drying conditions

Water transport and water management are fundamental to polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell operation. Accurate measurements of water content within and across the Nafion layer are required to elucidate water transport behavior and validate existing numerical models.We report here a direct measurement of water content profiles across a Nafion layer under wetting and drying conditions, using a novel magnetic resonance imaging methodology developed for this purpose. This method, multi-echo double half k-space spin echo single point imaging, based on a pure phase encode spin echo, is designed for high resolution 1D depth imaging of thin film samples. The method generates high resolution (<8 μm) depth images with an SNR greater than 20, in an image acquisition time of less than 2 min. The high temporal resolution permits water content measurements in the transient states of wetting and drying, in addition to the steady state.     

多腔体心脏磁场模型的研究与应用

利用核磁共振图像(MRI)中提取的人体和心脏边界,根据边界元方法(BEM)建立了一个考虑左、右心房和心室的多腔体心脏磁场模型.分析了用该模型得到的36通道心脏磁场数据和特定时刻的磁场图.并在此基础上,研究了完全性右束支传导阻滞(CRBBB)和完全性左束支传导阻滞(CLBBB)病人ST-T段的心脏电活动.结果显示,用移动单电流偶极子模拟的单束支电兴奋传导所产生的磁场图与用超导量子干涉器(SQUID)测量的CRBBB/CLBBB病人数据绘制的心脏复极时的心磁图(MCG)十分相似.结果表明,该多腔体心脏BEM模型可用于CLBBB/CRBBB病人心脏磁场逆问题的研究.此外,文中给出了两个评价指标:测量平面上多腔体与单腔体的心脏磁场强度极大值之比,以及两种模型的36个测量点上磁场强度均方根之比.分析表明,多腔体心脏模型更贴近人体心脏的实际情况.该模型中心脏组织电导率参数的取值,以及等效电流偶极子的位置和个数决定了磁场的强度和分布.     

Magnetic response of split-ring resonators in the far-infrared frequency regime

We report on the fabrication, through photolithography techniques, and the detailed characterization, through direct transmission measurements, of a periodic system composed of five layers of photolithographically aligned micrometer-sized Ag split-ring resonators (SRRs). The measured transmission spectra for propagation perpendicular to the SRRs plane show a gap around 6 THz for one of the two possible polarizations of the incident electric field; this indicates the existence of a magnetic resonance, which is verified by detailed theoretical analysis. To our knowledge this is the first time that a system of more than one layer of micrometer-sized SRRs has been fabricated. The measured optical spectra of the Ag microstructure are in very good agreement with the corresponding theoretical calculations.     

Nuclear spin relaxation induced by a mechanical resonator

We report on measurements of the spin lifetime of nuclear spins strongly coupled to a micromechanical cantilever as used in magnetic resonance force microscopy. We find that the rotating-frame correlation time of the statistical nuclear polarization is set by the magnetomechanical noise originating from the thermal motion of the cantilever. Evidence is based on the effect of three parameters: (1) the magnetic field gradient (the coupling strength), (2) the Rabi frequency of the spins (the transition energy), and (3) the temperature of the low-frequency mechanical modes. Experimental results are compared to relaxation rates calculated from the spectral density of the magnetomechanical noise.