We report on the use of radio-frequency optical atomic magnetometers for magnetic induction tomography measurements. We demonstrate the imaging of dummy targets of varying conductivities placed in the proximity of the sensor, in an unshielded environment at room-temperature and without background subtraction. The images produced by the system accurately reproduce the characteristics of the actual objects. Furthermore, we perform finite element simulations in order to assess the potential for measuring low-conductivity biological tissues with our system. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of an instrument based on optical atomic magnetometers for magnetic induction tomography imaging of biological samples, in particular for mapping anomalous conductivity in the heart.

Date Published: 29 April 2016
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 9900, Quantum Optics, 99000F (29 April 2016); doi: 10.1117/12.2227538

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9900:
Quantum Optics
Jürgen Stuhler; Andrew J. Shields, Editor(s)