Design and testing of a 1.5 Tesla double-tuned (1H/31P) RF surface coil with intrinsic geometric isolation

We analyse the isolation characteristics of axial and transverse field surface radio frequency coils, used to design a double-tuned surface coil composed by two coils, that combine proton (1H) detection and localized spectra of phosphorous (31P). Several geometrical configurations were analysed, including circular loop and figure-of-eight coils, with the aim to optimize the isolation between the two channels. Our analysis shows that by using at least one transverse coil for the design of the double-tuned probe, it is possible to achieve a good intrinsic geometrical decoupling, without the need of additional decoupling circuits. On the basis of the experimental results, we have designed and built a 1.5 T double-tuned probe composed by a circular loop coil and a transverse field coil, with the external coil tuned at the 1H frequency and the internal coil tuned at the 31P frequency, that shows a good intrinsic decoupling and signal-to-noise ratio.