Electromagnetic induction imaging with a scanning radio frequency atomic magnetometer

Abstract

We demonstrate electromagnetic induction imaging with an unshielded, portable radio frequency atomic magnetometer scanning over the target object. This configuration satisfies standard requirements in typical applications, from security screening to medical imaging. The ability to scan the magnetometer over the object relies on the miniaturization of the sensor head, the active compensation of the ambient magnetic field, and the implementation of a dedicated procedure to extract high-quality images from the recorded spatial dependent magnetic resonance. The procedure is shown to be effective in suppressing the detrimental effects of the spatial variation of the magnetic environment.

Detection and Characterisation of Conductive Objects Using Electromagnetic Induction and a Fluxgate Magnetometer

“…The localisation and characterisation of samples could be further explored with the help of machine learning [28]. It is worth noting that, although we used a fluxgate magnetometer to detect eddy currents in this study, other types of sensors can be used, including optically pumped magnetometers [29][30][31][32][33] and magnetoresistive sensors [34,35]. Using a highly sensitive optically pumped magnetometer instead of a fluxgate magnetometer could potentially extend the detection range [20].…”

Detection and characterisation of conductive objects using electromagnetic induction and a fluxgate magnetometer

“…The localisation and characterisation of samples could also be further explored with the help of machine learning [24]. It is worth noting that although we use a fluxgate magnetometer to detect eddy currents, other types of sensors can also be used, such as optically pumped magnetometers [25][26][27][28] or magnetoresistive sensors [29,30]. Using a highly sensitive optically pumped magnetometer instead of a fluxgate magnetometer could potentially extend the detection range [17].…”

Imaging corrosion under insulation with a mechanically-translatable atomic magnetometer

“…The imaging system consists of a compact radio-frequency atomic magnetometer (RF-AM) [11], [12] operating in electromagnetic induction imaging modality [13], [14]. The system was described in detail previously [15], [16], and we recall here only the essential details.…”