Metamaterial lens for magnetic resonance imaging

A metamaterial lens is presented for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) application, which is expected to enhance the magnetic field intensity of the surface coil and improve the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the MRI system. The lens is based on a split-ring constructed into a three dimensional cuboid, providing permeability μ = -1. Measurements show that the improvement of a metamaterial lens-based coil over a conventional coil is 4.2 dBi at 282MHz, which is promising for pre-clinical study in a 7T MRI system at 300 MHz band.