Superconducting magnet beats world record of strength

Scientists have created the world's most powerful superconducting magnet, capable of generating a record magnetic field strength of 45.5 Tesla. Only pulsed magnets, which hold the fields for a fraction of a second at a time, have reached higher intensities.

Materials scientist David Larbalestier and his collaborators at the US National High-Magnetic Field Laboratory (NHMFL) in Tallahassee, Florida, have been directing intense electrical currents in superconducting cuprate coils to generate magnetic fields. low energy consumption. The intensity of the field obtained was greater than that of energy-consuming resistive magnets – which do not use superconductors – used by state-of-the-art magnet laboratories. It has also surpassed conventional superconducting magnets and superconducting – resistive "hybrid" magnets (see "Record magnets"). The results were published on June 12 in Nature¹.

Previous cuprate magnets were too fragile to use in technological applications, but the new design should be able to support fields up to 60 tesla, Larbalestier says. Thousands of researchers bring their samples each year to facilities such as the NHMFL to conduct experiments with higher intensity fields than can be obtained in a typical laboratory.