Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science
In my master's research, I am currently developing an MRI system using β-NMR (β-ray detection nuclear magnetic resonance). MRI, which is currently widely used in the medical field, visualizes the physical information in the body by applying a strong magnetic field to the hydrogen nuclei in the body and measuring their movement. On the other hand, in my research, we are planning to inject accelerated nuclei into the body in the manner of radiotherapy, and measure the β-rays emitted by the nuclei to visualize the information around the nuclei. The current MRI system uses stable nuclei that do not emit β-rays, but in this study, we use unstable nuclei that do. Since the number of unstable nuclei is much larger than that of stable nuclei, this development will greatly increase the number of nuclides that can be used in MRI, and will also enable information to be obtained from oxygen and carbon, which are abundant in the body, thereby increasing the detection efficiency and greatly expanding the applications of MRI. In this research and development, we plan to design and fabricate a radiation detector using a scintillation fiber, and actually detect and analyze the β-rays emitted from the nuclei launched into the sample with the fabricated detector, thereby visualizing the physical properties of the sample and demonstrating the usefulness of this development.