A signal input coil made of superconducting thin film for improved signal-to-noise ratio in a high-T_c SQUID-based ultra-low field nuclear magnetic resonance system

Resonant coupling schemes are commonly used in SQUID-based ultra-low field (ULF) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) systems to couple the spin relaxation signals from samples to the SQUID. Generally, in NMR systems, a resonant coupling scheme is composed of two solenoid coils which are made of enamel insulated wires and a capacitor connected in series. In this work, we tried to replace the metal solenoid input coil with a planar high-T_c superconducting spiral coil to improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the ULF NMR signal. A measurement of the free induction decay signal of water protons was performed to demonstrate the improved performance of the system. This improvement is due to the fact that the planar superconducting spiral coil possesses a higher mutual inductance with the SQUID. Therefore, it is a promising way to enhance the SNR of high-T_c SQUID-based ULF NMR/MRI systems.