Characterizing the field-dependent T1-relaxation and imaging of ferrofluids using high-Tc superconducting quantum interference device magnetometer in low magnetic fields

In this paper, we investigate the field-dependent T1-relaxation and T1-contrast imaging of ferrofluids using high-Tc superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID)-detected nuclear magnetic resonance and imaging in low magnetic fields, where T1 is the spin-lattice relaxation time. It was found that the 1/T1 of ferrofluids increases when the prepolarization field increases. We attribute this to the enhanced magnetic-field gradients generated from the induced magnetization that accelerates the T1-relaxation more in a high strength of fields in comparison to a low strength of fields. Using phantoms with different relaxation times, the T1-contrast images are demonstrated in low magnetic fields, which can be promising for discriminating tumors.

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