Magnetic Resonance Imaging with a Dielectric Lens

TL;DR

This paper investigates the use of a dielectric lens made from commercial polycarbonate sheets to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio in MRI images, demonstrating potential improvements with simple materials.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of dielectric periodical arrays as lenses in MRI to improve image quality, using accessible materials like polycarbonate sheets.

Findings

Dielectric lenses can improve MRI SNR.

Polycarbonate sheets are effective and accessible materials.

Enhanced image quality demonstrated at 3 Tesla.

Abstract

Recently, metamaterials have been introduced to improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of magnetic resonance images with very promising results. However, the use polymers in the generation of high quality images in magnetic resonance imaging has not been fully been investigated. These investigations explored the use of a dielectric periodical array as a lens to improve the image SNR generated with single surface coils. Commercial polycarbonate glazing sheets were used together with a circular coil to generate phantom images at 3 Tesla on a clinical MR imager.