Magnetics Business & Technology - January/February 2022 - 18

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
NSF Grant Funds New 40T Superconducting Magnet Design
Designing on paper
A new $15.8 million grant from the National Science Foundation
(NSF) will produce a detailed design for the world's most powerful
superconducting magnet at the Florida State University-headquartered
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. While the National
MagLab is already home to more than a dozen world-record
magnets used by researchers from around the world, the future
40-tesla magnet will advance the study of quantum matter with its
low-noise environment that surpasses present-day resistive and
hybrid magnets.
" This project is a fantastic example of how science works on the
edge of our understanding: engineers will design a new instrument
that has never been built before that holds the promise to
become a state-of the-art tool for physicists to answer outstanding
research questions about the mysteries of quantum materials, "
explained Greg Boebinger, MagLab director and co-PI on the
grant. " Our user community is excited about the virtually limitless
time at peak field and low noise environment this future magnet,
once constructed, would provide to advance their research goals. "
The design for a new 40T magnet will call for the use of cuttingedge
materials known as high-temperature superconductors,
which allow a near perfect flow of electrons at higher temperatures
than their earlier low-temperature counterparts. To put this
magnet design in perspective, a typical refrigerator magnet has a
field of about .01 T and low-temperature superconductors have a
18 Magnetics Business & Technology * January/February 2022
maximum field of 25T.
Dozens of researchers within the lab's Magnet Science and
Technology department and Applied Superconductivity Center will
bring their unique expertise in materials research, magnet design
and technology development to this new project. The MagLab's
demonstrated successes in magnet research and development
include two recent breakthroughs in HTS technology: a 32-tesla
all-superconducting magnet that was designed, built and reached
full field at the MagLab in December 2017 and a 14.5 tesla test
coil that reached a world record 45.5 tesla field strength inside a
31-tesla resistive magnet.
" Magnets are only as good as the materials and technologies in
which they are built, " said Mark Bird, director of the Magnet Science
and Technology division at the National MagLab. " A magnet
like this can only be achieved at the National MagLab where we
are leading a revolution in understanding and leveraging hightemperature
superconductors. "
For the final design, MagLab scientists and engineers are considering
two different magnet technologies using the high-temperature
superconductor known as " rare earth barium copper oxide "
or REBCO. The two design strategies take different approaches
to address inconsistency in the performance of the REBCO
tape. One design uses multiple REBCO tapes in parallel, while
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