MPS and ACS with an atomic magnetometer

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that a single atomic magnetometer can perform magnetic particle spectroscopy and AC susceptometry on liquid magnetic nanoparticles in unshielded environments, enabling potential atomic magnetometer-based MPI scanners.

Contribution

It introduces methods for simultaneous MPS and ACS measurements using an atomic magnetometer without magnetic shielding, with high sensitivity down to 1 μg of iron.

Findings

Successful simultaneous recording of M(H) and dM/dH(H) dependences.

Detection of magnetic nanoparticles with as little as 1 μg of iron.

Paves the way for atomic magnetometer-based MPI scanners.

Abstract

We show that a single atomic magnetometer in a magnetically unshielded environment can be used to perform magnetic particle spectroscopy (MPS) and AC susceptometry (ACS) on liquid-suspended magnetic nanoparticles. We demonstrate methods allowing a simultaneous recording of M(H) and dM/dH(H) dependences of samples containing down to 1 $\mu$g of iron. Our results pave the way towards an atomic magnetometer based MPI scanner.