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ST: Fachverband Strahlen- und Medizinphysik

ST 7: DPG meets DGMP

ST 7.3: Invited Talk

Wednesday, March 20, 2024, 17:30–18:00, PC 203

Halbach Magnets for Applications in Medical Physics — •Peter Blümler — University of Mainz, Institute of Physics, Mainz, Germany

In recent years permanent magnets with the design that was originally proposed by Klaus Halbach [1] have found an increasing number of uses in various fields of medical physics. Their first application was in accelerator designs, then in magnetic resonance [2], magnetic particle imaging [3] and magnetic guiding [4] of nanoparticles and larger objects (e.g. endoscopes). Many of these applications are still exploratory, mainly because the Halbach design is often considered to be very elegant and optimized but also very complicated.

This talk will introduce the concept, briefly explain the construction and then focus on certain features which are unique for this magnet design, e.g. creation of homogeneous magnetic fields or gradients of variable strengths, or magnets that can be opened or closed without force. To conclude on examples of applications in medical physics and potential uses in the future.

[1] K. Halbach, Nucl. Inst. Methods 169 (1980) 1-10 doi: 10.1016/0029-554X(80)90094-4

[2] P. Blümler and H. Soltner, (2023) Appl. Magn. Reason. 54 (2023) 1701-1739.doi: 10.1007/s00723-023-01602-2

[3] A. C. Bakenecker et al., Phys. Med. & Biol. 65 (2020) 195014 doi: 10.1088/1361-6560/ab7e7e

[4] P. Blümler, Cells 10 (2021) 2708 doi: 10.3390/cells10102708

Keywords: permanent magnets; MRI; MPI; superparamagnetic particles; guiding