Analysis of the temporal and spatial dependence of the eddy current fields in a 40-cm bore magnet

Eddy current fields, generated in an animal-size superconducting NMR magnet by a nominally rectangular pulsed transverse gradient applied in the vertical direction, have been studied by measuring the offset frequency of the proton NMR signal obtained from a small spherical sample. Measurements were made, after various time delays, at nine different locations in the sample space. Analysis of the data shows that the time-dependent fields at all nine locations are quite well accounted for by the superposition of only four independent exponentially decaying components that have time constants in the range from 9 to 400 ms. Two of these were found to be caused by eddy currents generated in the magnet structure. They generate primarily linear gradients, though one of them also produces a B0 shift, indicating a significant asymmetry about the isocenter of the conducting structure in which the eddy current flows. The other two exponentially decaying components, which had very different time constants from the eddy currents and also initial amplitudes of the opposite sign, were generated by the preemphasis unit. This calls into question the procedure used to adjust the preemphasis unit and an alternative method is proposed.