We have developed an approach to building superluminal medium for transformation opticsbased devices, including invisibility cloaks, from photonic crystals. Analysis of dispersion diagrams of 2D arrays composed from dielectric rods has shown that at frequencies corresponding to the second bands formed due to bandgap opening at increase of rod permittivity, the medium formed by arrays exhibits refractive indices providing for superluminal phase velocities of propagating waves. It is further demonstrated that rod arrays with various lattice constants could be used for realizing a range of superluminal index values prescribed by transformation optics for cylindrical cloaks at arbitrary chosen operating frequency. The performed studies allowed for solving a row of problems with employment rod arrays in the cloak medium: in particular, formulating transformation optics-based prescriptions for refractive index dispersion in the cloaking shell, defining the dimensions of array fragments capable of responding similar to infinite arrays, finding optimal distribution of linear arrays sets at their coiling to form concentric material layers in the cloaking shell, and employing interaction between neighboring array sets with various lattice constants to assist the realization of prescribed index dispersion. The performance of the superluminal medium formed by rod array sets was demonstrated on an example of a cloaking shell developed for microwave frequency range. In contrast to metamaterial-based cloak media, the developed media requires neither material homogenization, nor obtaining the effective parameters with peculiar values and Lorentz's type resonances in rods. Combination of these advantages and low losses makes photonic crystals perspective materials for invisibility cloaks operating in THz and optical ranges.
Purpose:To present a 3T brain imaging study using a conformal prototype helmet constructed with an ultra-high dielectric constant (uHDC; ε r ~ 1000) materials that can be inserted into standard receive head-coils. Methods: A helmet conformal to a standard human head constructed with uHDC materials was characterized through electromagnetic simulations and experimental work. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), transmit efficiency, and power deposition with the uHDC helmet inserted within a 20-channel head coil were measured in vivo and compared with a 64-channel head coil and the 20-channel coil without the helmet. Seven healthy volunteers were analyzed. Results: Simulation and in vivo experimental results showed that transmit efficiency was improved by nearly 3 times within localized regions for a quadrature excitation, with a measured global increase of 58.21 ± 6.54% over 7 volunteers. The use of a parallel transmit spokes pulse compensated for severe degradation of B + 1 homogeneity, at the expense of higher global and local specific absorption rate levels. A SNR histogram analysis with statistical testing demonstrated that the uHDC helmet enhanced a 20-channel head coil to the level of the 64-channel head coil, with the improvements mainly within the cortical brain regions. Conclusion: A prototype uHDC helmet enhanced the SNR of a standard head coil to the level of a high density 64-channel coil, although transmit homogeneity was compromised. Further improvements in SNR may be achievable with optimization of this technology, and could be a low-cost approach for future radiofrequency engineering work in the brain at 3T.
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