Yttrium-iron garnet film magnetometer for magnetic microparticles in vivo registration studies

Abstract

In the current article, we present a new kind of magnetometer for quantitative determination of magnetic objects in biological fluids and tissues. The sensor is based on yttrium-iron garnet film with optical signal registration system. Inheriting the working principle of a fluxgate magnetometers, the sensor works at a room-temperature, its wide dynamic range allows the measurements in an unshielded environment. A small size of sensitive element combined with a short recovery time after the excitation coils are off provide us with a potentially high spatial and temporal resolution of measurements. We show the feasibility of the sensor by sensing the remanent magnetization of Magnetic Nanoparticles (MNPs) both in vitro (test tubes, dry MNPs) and in vivo (local injection of the MNPs into mice).