Surface normal imaging with a hand-held NMR device.

Recently the capabilities of single sided nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) devices have been extended towards three-dimensional imaging. This paper details the use of a magnetic field sweep coil to obtain spatial resolution in the plane normal to the surface of a hand-held NMR device-the NMR-Mobile Universal Surface Explorer (MOUSE). One-dimensional depth profiles can be recorded by varying the current in the sweep coils. Preliminary results from multi-layer rubber and glass sample phantoms demonstrate a sample penetration depth of 7 mm. Two-dimensional images were acquired via the inclusion of phase encoding coils. Non-destructive cross-sectional images of small rubber phantoms were successfully recorded. Copyright 2003 Elsevier Inc.