Harnessing Surface Plasmons for Magnetic Resonance Imaging Applications

Metamaterials have great potential to control near-field electromagnetic response at will. Lately metamaterial-based devices have been used to manipulate the rf magnetic field in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) via Fabry-Perot resonances or subdiffraction lenses. This work shows that a negative-permeability metamaterial incorporated into an MRI setup supports magnetic surface plasmons, allowing local boosting of the magnetic field and an improved signal-to-noise ratio. These results could pave the way for high-performance MRI systems.