Here, we present a totally new concept for an MRI coil,
which uses reconfigurable conducting plasma rather than
a fixed-geometry conductor. A plasma has many
advantageous properties in terms of forming an MRI coil,
including that the plasma can be turned on-and-off
whenever needed (unlike a metal conductor which is
always physically present), the resistance of the plasma
decreases with increased current passing through the
plasma, and the interactions between the precessing
magnetization and the plasma can be manipulated by
varying the relationship between the plasma frequency (
p
)
and the Larmor frequency (
0
).
