High-T_c Superconductor Detection Coils for a Magnetic Resonance System

Considering that in a magnetic resonance system, if the detection coil contributes dominantly to the system noise, the performance of the whole system can certainly be improved by switching to a detection coil made of high-temperature superconductor, and using YBa₂Cu₃O₇ thin films on 25 x 25mm² LaAlO₃ substrates, we have prepared two kinds of detection coils, i.e., single-coil and two-coil. Encouragingly, their quality factors are measured to be Q > 2500 for two-coil (at 22.566 MHz and 77 K) and Q > 5500 for single-coil (at 92.3 MHz and 77 K), respectively. Here, we describe the details of the design, fabrication and tests of the coils.