A pulsed electromagnet controller for prepolarized MRI

Conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) collects the signal from magnetization created in the sample by a strong and uniform magnetic field. An alternative approach, called prepolarized MRI (PMRI), uses a pulsed magnetic field to boost equilibrium magnetization in the sample prior to signal collection. Strong magnetization in the sample contributes to high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) which is a fundamental measure of scanner performance. To enable PMRI experiments, a pulsed electromagnet controller has been designed and built. Here the theory of the controller is presented and initial results are discussed