Inductive Imaging of the Concealed Defects with Radio-Frequency Atomic Magnetometers

• Published in: Applied sciences Vol. 10; no. 19; p. 6871
• Main Authors: Bevington, P., Gartman, R., Chalupczak, W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01-10-2020
• Subjects: atomic magnetometer; Atomic properties; Bias; Defects; Equipment and supplies; Fault location (Engineering); Frequency dependence; Frequency ranges; Inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry; Innovations; Lasers; Magnetic fields; magnetic induction tomography; Magnetometer; Magnetometers; Measurement techniques; Methods; Non-destructive testing; Performance evaluation; Phase contrast; Radio frequency; Receivers & amplifiers; Sensors; Tomography; United Kingdom
• ISSN: 2076-3417; 2076-3417
• DOI: 10.3390/app10196871

We explore the capabilities of the radio-frequency atomic magnetometers in the non-destructive detection of concealed defects. We present results from the systematic magnetic inductive measurement of various defect types in an electrically conductive object at different rf field frequencies (0.4–12 kHz) that indicate the presence of an optimum operational frequency of the sensor. The optimum in the frequency dependence of the amplitude/phase contrast for defects under a 0.5–1.5 mm conductive barrier was observed within the 1–2 kHz frequency range. The experiments are performed in the self-compensated configuration that automatically removes the background signal created by the rf field producing object response.