Optical atomic magnetometry for magnetic induction tomography of the heart

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the use of optical atomic magnetometers for magnetic induction tomography, successfully imaging dummy targets and assessing potential for biological tissue imaging, especially for cardiac applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of optical atomic magnetometers for magnetic induction tomography of biological tissues, including unshielded, room-temperature operation without background subtraction.

Findings

Accurate imaging of dummy targets with varying conductivities.

Feasibility shown for imaging low-conductivity biological tissues.

Potential for cardiac conductivity mapping demonstrated.

Abstract

We report on the use of radio-frequency optical atomic magnetometers for magnetic induction tomography measurements. We demonstrate the imaging of dummy targets of varying conductivities placed in the proximity of the sensor, in an unshielded environment at room-temperature and without background subtraction. The images produced by the system accurately reproduce the characteristics of the actual objects. Furthermore, we perform finite element simulations in order to assess the potential for measuring low-conductivity biological tissues with our system. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of an instrument based on optical atomic magnetometers for magnetic induction tomography imaging of biological samples, in particular for mapping anomalous conductivity in the heart.