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A liquid nitrogen-cooled cryostat for multichannel HTS magnetoencephalography

Pfeiffer, Christoph; Ruffieux, Silvia; Schneiderman, Justin F.; Chukharkin, Maxim L.; Kalaboukhov, Alexei; Xie, Minshu; Winkler, Dag

Abstract:

Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a functional neuroimaging technology used in neuroscience as well as in the diagnosis and treatment of brain disorders like epilepsy and for surgical planning. In MEG neural activity is measured by sensing the weak magnetic fields (~10s to 100s of femtotesla) that are generated by neural currents in the brain. Highly sensitive magnetic field sensors are required for MEG. Today’s commercial systems therefore employ liquid helium-cooled low-Tc SQUIDs. With advances in high-temperature superconducting (HTS) technology high-Tc SQUIDs have become a serious alternative. Due to the higher operating temperature they can be placed closer to the head and therefore measure higher magnitude signals than low-Tc SQUIDs that must record from further away – thus enabling them to overcome the typically higher noise compared to their commercial counterparts [1]. We have developed a liquid nitrogen-cooled cryostat for a 7-channel HTS MEG system. The cryostat is designed for minimum distance between the cold (~77 K) SQUIDs and the head of a subject at room temperature. With superinsulation around the nitrogen vessel and a small vacuum space between the sensors and a thin window, we can achieve minimum sensor-to-head distances of less than 3 mm. ... mehr


Volltext §
DOI: 10.5445/IR/1000075566
Cover der Publikation
Zugehörige Institution(en) am KIT Institut für Technische Physik (ITEP)
Publikationstyp Vortrag
Publikationsjahr 2017
Sprache Englisch
Identifikator urn:nbn:de:swb:90-755665
KITopen-ID: 1000075566
HGF-Programm 37.06.02 (POF III, LK 01) New Power Network Technology
Veranstaltung 2nd International Workshop on Cooling Systems for HTS Applications (IWC-HTS), Karlsruhe, Germany, 13th - 15th September 2017
Bemerkung zur Veröffentlichung Author affiliation: Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
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