NMR in reduced geometries, with applications to biomedicine,
chemistry and physics
Louis Bouchard
Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
There are strong incentives for developing universal MRI sensors operating in low magnetic fields, including reduced cost, smaller sizes, portability, increased T1 contrast and imaging through metallic objects. I shall present novel theory, instrumentation and methodologies for MRI in zero to very low magnetic fields, with particular attention to the presence of strong gradient quadrupole
fields and inhomogeneous fields. I will also discuss the development of novel nanoparticle contrast agents for molecular and cellular imaging as well as novel approaches to gas-phase imaging using
parahydrogen, with applications to microfluidic heterogeneous catalysis and the study of chemical reactions. Interesting new problems and challenges in chemical engineering and compressible
microfluidic dynamics will be covered.