Russian Physics Journal, Vol. 48, No.

9, 2005

A TWO-SPIRAL FLAT COIL FOR DETECTING 14N NQR SIGNALS

G. V. Mozzhukhin, A. V. Efremov, A. V. Bodnya, and V. V. Fedotov UDC 621.396.67

In the present article, the design of a two-spiral flat coil intended for detecting NQR signals is described. Results of
calculations of its magnetic fields and field non-uniformities are presented for windings of different types. It is
demonstrated that the two-spiral coil field is localized in the near-field zone and has more uniform structure than
the field of the conventional spiral coil with the same radius and winding type. It is emphasized that the two-spiral
coil has higher sensitivity than the analogous conventional flat coil. Results of experiments on detecting the 14N
NQR signal of urotropine C6H1N4 with this coil are presented.

INTRODUCTION

The capabilities of NQR that allows a substance to be identified with high accuracy are well known [1–4]. The
optimal conditions of NQR signal detection are a 90° pulse irradiating the sample [1] and a local NQR sensor that satisfies
the following requirements: it provides a highly uniform field on irradiation of the sample with a radio-frequency field in
the region of sample arrangement and has the sensitivity and stability to noise sufficient for the given signal-to-noise ratio.
The description of methods of detecting 14N NQR signals with the use of a transceiving flat spiral coil can be found
in [4–9]. In [7] windings of different types were analyzed and it was pointed out that the optimal winding for the spiral coil
of a given diameter obeys the law

b = a ln(1 + k ϕ) , (1)

where b is the radial winding coordinate, ϕ is the current angle of the winding element in the polar system of coordinates, k
is the coefficient determined by the coil dimension and the number of turns, and a is the logarithmic winding spacing.
On the other hand, the results of calculations demonstrate that the radio-frequency field of spiral coils is analogous
to that of a single turn with current and radius equal to that of the coil. The denser the coil winding toward the external
spiral radius, the closer the spiral winding field to that of the turn with current. As is well known (for example, see [12]), the
coil with current has a wide effective directivity pattern; as a consequence, the spiral coil with the density of windings
increasing toward the external coil radius will have low spatial selectivity and large noise level. The flat spiral coil with
uniform winding [8, 11] has still a greater number of disadvantages than the coil with non-uniform winding.
At the same time, to increase the signal-to-noise ratio of the receiving antenna, the radio-frequency field of the coil
must be localized in the volume being detected, and as already indicated above, a very uniform field must be created by the
transmitting coil. In the present work, we suggest a two-spiral flat transceiving coil to improve the method and means for
detecting NQR signals with flat spiral coils [8, 10]. The characteristics of this coil for a preset volume being detected are
better than those of the conventional flat spiral coil with the same radius. We consider two-spiral flat coils of two types with
constant winding spacing and spacing that obeys law (1) as well as give results of calculations of radio-frequency fields for
coils of both types and of their average relative field non-uniformities together with measurements of NQR signal intensity
with the two-spiral coils versus the distance from the examined sample.

Kaliningrad State University, e-mail: [email protected]. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh
Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 9, pp. 79–84, September, 2005. Original article submitted May 26, 2004; revision submitted August
19, 2005.

978 1064-8887/05/4809-0978 ©2005 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.

 Fig. 1. Two-spiral coil in the Cartesian system of coordinates with uniform winding spacing. Here
Ra is the spiral winding radius, ρ and ϕ are the current spiral winding radius and angle, arrows
specify the direction of current flow, and {x, y, z} is the point at which the field is determined.

1. TWO-SPIRAL FLAT COILS WITH CONSTANT AND LOGARITHMIC WINDING SPACING

A two-spiral flat coil comprises two sections. Each section is a flat spiral winding of wire of the same length. Both
sections are connected in an electric circuit in such a manner that currents in each section run in opposite directions. The
distance between the section centers is equal to the winding diameter (Fig. 1). By analogy with [10], the magnetic field of
the two-spiral coil is a vector sum of fields of two flat spiral windings. In the Cartesian system of coordinates, the
components of the magnetic field induction vector of the system of coils (Fig. 1) are written as follows:

⎧ ⎫
µ0 I N 2π ⎪⎪ 1 1 ⎪⎪
Bx = ∑∫ iha z cos ϕ ⎨ 3⎬
d ϕ,
4π i =1 0 3
⎪
( 2 2
⎪⎩ ( x − iha cos ϕ) + ( y − iha sin ϕ − Ra ) + x
2
) (
2 2 2 ⎪
( x − iha cos ϕ) + ( y − iha sin ϕ + Ra ) + z 2 2 ⎪⎭ )
(2)

⎧ ⎫
µ 0 I N 2π ⎪⎪ 1 1 ⎪⎪
By = ∑ ∫ iha z sin ϕ ⎨ 3⎬
d ϕ,
4π i =1 0 3
⎪
( 2 2
⎪⎩ ( x − iha cos ϕ ) + ( y − iha sin ϕ − Ra ) + x
2
) (
2 2 2 2 2⎪
( x − iha cos ϕ) + ( y − iha sin ϕ + Ra ) + z ⎪⎭ )
(3)

⎧ ⎫
µ0 I N 2π ⎪⎪ ( y sin ϕ + x cos ϕ − iha ) ( y sin ϕ + x cos ϕ − iha ) ⎪⎪
Bz = ∑∫ iha z ⎨ 3⎬
d ϕ,
4π 3
i =1 0
(⎪ 2 2
⎪⎩ ( x − iha cos ϕ ) + ( y − iha sin ϕ − Ra ) + x
2
) (( x − ih
2
a
2 2
cos ϕ ) + ( y − iha sin ϕ + Ra ) + z 2 ) 2
⎪
⎪⎭

(4)

where µ0 is the magnetic constant, I is the current amplitude in the coil, i is the serial number of the circular turn counted off
from the center of the spiral winding, ha is the winding spacing, {x, y, z} are coordinates of the point at which the field is
determined, ϕ is the current winding angle, Ra is the winding radius, and N is the number of turns.

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 Fig. 2. Modulus of the magnetic field induction vector for the two-spiral flat coil with uniform winding
(а) and with logarithmic winding (b) in the Oyz plane. The plots show isopleths of the magnetic filed
induction vectors in relative units.

Figure 2a shows the dependence of the modulus of magnetic field induction vector for the two-spiral flat coil with
uniform winding on the distance in the Oyz plane calculated from Eqs. (2)–(4) for N = 10, Ra = 0.05 m, ha = 0.005 m, and
I = 1 A; Fig. 2b shows this dependence for winding spacing that obeys law (1) and the same coil parameters: N = 10,
Ra = 0.05 m, I = 1 A, a = 0.006 m, and k = 55.5 rad–1.
Thus, the magnetic fields of the two-spiral flat coils with uniform and logarithmic coil windings are concentrated
between the two spiral windings. The field of the coil with logarithmic winding is higher than that of the two-spiral coil
with uniform winding due to longer winding of the first coil. The magnetic field non-uniformities for such coils also differ.

2. FIELD NON-UNIFORMITIES

By definition, the relative field non-uniformity at the current point is [13]

B − B0
δ= , (5)
B0

where B is the field at the current point and B0 is the field at the reference point.
To characterize the dependence of the field non-uniformities for two-spiral flat coils on the distance from their
plane, we consider the average relative field non-uniformity for the coil in the current Z plane

M
∑ B − B0′
i =1
∆= , (6)
M B0′

where B ′ is the average field of the coil in the Z plane and M is the number of examined field points.
For the conventional flat spiral coils lying in the Oxy plane of the Cartesian system of coordinates with the center at
the origin of coordinates, the components of the magnetic field induction vector of both coils with uniform winding and

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 Fig. 3. Average relative magnetic field non-uniformity of the conventional flat spiral coils with
uniform and logarithmic windings (а) and of the two-spiral flat coils with uniform and logarithmic
windings (b) in the current Z plane. The examined area in both cases was the square with side Ra
parallel to the Ox axis and the intersection point of the square diagonals lying on the Oz axis.

with logarithmic winding (1) are well known [8]. Figure 3a shows the average relative magnetic field non-uniformities for
these coils in a square lying in the Z plane. One of the square sides is equal to the coil radius Ra and parallel to the Ox axis,
and the point of intersection of the square diagonals lies on the Oz axis.
The average relative magnetic field non-uniformity for the two-spiral flat coils was also investigated in the square
with side Ra and the point of intersection of the square diagonals lying on the Oz axis. The square itself lies in the Z plane,
and one of its sides is parallel to the Ox axis. Using Eqs. (1)–(4) and (6), we obtained the results shown in Fig. 3.
As the results of calculations demonstrate, the two-spiral flat coils with uniform and logarithmic windings have, on
average, a more uniform field at distances ≤R0/2 in the working zone between the windings than the conventional flat spiral
coils with the same winding types (Fig. 3a and b). At the same time, the two-spiral flat coil with uniform winding has
a more uniform field at distances ≤R0/2 from the coil plane than the coil with logarithmic winding (Fig. 3b).

3. RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS

All experimental data were obtained using a local NQR spectrometer described in [14]. The two-spiral flat coils
with uniform winding in one case and logarithmic winding in the other case were used as coils of the spectrometer sensor
(see Fig. 1). The coils were put on a dielectric substrate from fabric glass laminate with a thickness of 2 mm. Each section
of the two-spiral flat coil with uniform winding contained 10 turns of wire in teflon insulation. The coil inductance was
132 µH, the winding radius was 0.05 m, and the distance between winding centers was equal to the winding diameter. Turns
of the two-spiral flat coil with logarithmic winding were etched in foiled fabric glass laminate, the coil also contained 10
turns, the width of a single winding was 0.05 m, the turn spacing was described by Eq. (1), the coil inductance was 352 µH,
and the distance between the winding centers was equal to the winding diameter. In both cases, there were no radio-
frequency screens around the NQR sensors.
We investigated urotropine C6H12N4 samples. 14N NQR signals were registered at room temperature at a frequency
of 3306 kHz. The urotropine powder with a mass of 150 g was poured into a cylinder with a base radius of 0.05 m and
a height of 0.025 m.
NQR signals were detected at different distances from the plane of the two-spiral coil to the sample surface, and the
sample itself was located in the middle between the windings of the two-spiral coil. The power per pulse was 800 W, the
radio-frequency pulse duration was tw = 160 µs, and the time interval between pulses was 1500 µs. The detuning from the

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 Fig. 4. NQR signal intensity for two-spiral flat coils with uniform and logarithmic windings as
a function of the distance between the coil and sample.

Fig. 5. Signal transient in the two-spiral flat coil by RDX at a distance of 50 mm.

resonance was 3.5 kHz, and the number of accumulated NQR signals during measurements was 200. There was no radio-
frequency screen around the NQR sensor.
Figure 4 shows the dependence of the NQR signal intensity for the two-spiral coils with uniform and logarithmic
windings on the distance from the coil plane to the sample surface. The total signal is the average NQR signal intensity
received from all parts of the sample.
In addition, we present the NQR signal transient in the two-spiral flat coil with a winding radius of 200 mm by
a hexogen C3H6N6O6 (RDX) sample with a mass of 100 g. The sample was placed inside of the cylinder with a base radius
of 0.05 m and a height of 0.02 m put in the middle between the two sections of the two-spiral flat coil with uniform
winding. The signal was registered at a frequency of 5186 kHz, the pulse duration was 100 µs, the time interval between
pulses was 1500 µs, and the power per pulse was 800 W. The detuning from the resonance was 3.0 kHz. We used the
spectrometer whose design was described in [14]. The distance between the sample and the coil was 50 mm. Figure 5 shows
the result averaged coherently over 1000 signals.

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CONCLUSIONS

In this work, the two-spiral flat coils intended for detecting NQR signals and having uniform and logarithmic
windings have been studied. The magnetic fields of coils were calculated, and the average relative filed non-uniformities
were analyzed. The results obtained were compared with those for the conventional spiral coils with windings of the same
types and dimensions. It was found that the field of the two-spiral coil was localized and had a more uniform structure in the
zone of sample arrangement than that of the conventional flat spiral coil. The sensitivity of the two-spiral flat coil at
distances no more than half the winding radius from the coil plane was higher than that of the ordinary flat spiral coil with
winding of the same type and dimension. At the same time, it was found that logarithmic winding in the two-spiral flat coil
did not improve the field uniformity in the zone of sample arrangement. The two-spiral flat coil has high stability to noise
and hence can be used in sensors of NQR spectrometers without radio-frequency screen. The results of measurements
confirm this conclusion.
This coil was successfully used in NQR systems for luggage and mail examination.

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