Young Kim and Igor Savukov at Los Alamos National Labs demonstrate a new room temperature magnetic microscope. They used QZFM as the sensor element and a ferrite flux guide to transport magnetic field from a tiny test object to the sensor. In their experimental work, the authors used a 0.75 mm coil as the test object and were able to measure signals from the coil with 23 pT/
sensitivity with the sensor operating at 20 fT/. They project that an optimized device can achieve a unique combination of high resolution (80 μm) and high sensitivity (8.1 pT/
). The potential applications of their work include detection of firing from a single neuron without electrodes. Further reading: Nature Scientific Reports 6, Article number: 24773.
