A clever signal noise reduction strategy developed by a team that includes Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Ben Lawrie could dramatically improve brain imaging. By using quantum correlated beams of light, researchers reduced noise by 42 percent while doubling the signal in an optical magnetometer. They accomplished this feat, detailed in the journal Optics Letters, with no additional components. While conventional approaches to detect brain tumors and functions use techniques such as magnetoencephalography to measure electrical currents, they have historically required cryogenically cooled magnetometers, which add cost and complexity. This dramatic increase in performance greatly enhances the ability to detect the brain’s magnetic fields, which, to provide a sense of scale, Lawrie noted are roughly 10 million times smaller than those of Earth.
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