Abstract #0221

Nouls J, Izenson M, Greeley H, Bagley M, Rozzi J, Johnson G

We present a novel superconducting volume coil consisting of spiral coils in Helmholtz pair configuration for magnetic resonance microscopy of the mouse brain at 9.4T. Spiral coils can be tuned easily by hand. The probe resonance frequency is adjusted by changing the spacing between the coils, cooled by tightly temperature-controlled recirculating helium. The spiral was modeled by a radiofrequency simulation software. Agreement between modeled and experimental coil resonance frequency was excellent. Experimental magnetic field homogeneity was good. The quality factor improved by a factor of eight, as compared to a similar copper coil. Signal-to-noise ratio improvement is currently being investigated.