Theoretical Studies on Ultrasound Induced Hall Voltage and Its Application in Hall Effect Imaging

Based on the principles of the Hall effect for ultrasound excitation and wave propagation in a static magnetic field, the theory of ultrasound induced Hall voltage generation is derived in explicit formulae with consideration of the acoustic radiation for a planar transducer. It is proved by numerical simulations that the induced Hall voltage is mainly generated at the conductivity boundary and can be used to map the spatial variation of the conductivity value along the acoustic transmission path. Both the simulated Hall voltage and the reconstructed image show good agreement with the experimental results of Wen Ultrasonic Imaging 20 (1998) 206, 21 (1999) 186. The promising simulation results suggest the potential of implementing medical electrical impedance imaging by means of ultrasound induced Hall effect imaging.