In this paper we propose, design and test a new dual-nuclei RF-coil inspiredby wire metamaterial structures. The coil operates due to resonant excitationof hybridized eigenmodes in multimode flat periodic structures comprisingseveral coupled thin metal strips. It was shown that the field distribution ofthe coil (i.e. penetration depth) can be controlled independently at twodifferent Larmor frequencies by selecting a proper eigenmode in each of twomutually orthogonal periodic structures. The proposed coil requires no lumpedcapacitors for tuning and matching. In order to demonstrate the performance ofthe new design, an experimental preclinical coil for $^{19}$F/$^{1}$H imagingof small animals at 7.05T was engineered and tested on a homogeneous liquidphantom and in-vivo. The presented results demonstrate that the coil was welltuned and matched simultaneously at two Larmor frequencies and capable of imageacquisition with both the nuclei reaching large homogeneity area along with asufficient signal-to-noise ratio. In an in-vivo experiment it has been shownthat without retuning the setup it was possible to obtain anatomical $^{1}$Himages of a mouse under anesthesia consecutively with $^{19}$F images of a tinytube filled with a fluorine-containing liquid and attached to the body of themouse.
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