Chinese scieists have succeeded in making the world’s strongest resistance magnet, which produces a stable magnetic field of 42.02 tesla. This magnetic field is more than 800 thousand times stronger than the Earth’s magnetic field.
Resistive magnets, which are made of twisted metal wires, are commonly used in magnet research facilities around the world, reports Tecna Technology Media Science News Departme. This achieveme is seen as another importa developme for CHMFL (High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Sciences) after its success in 2022 with the world’s most powerful 45.22 Tesla hybrid magnet.
According to the institute, after almost four years of coinuous efforts, scieists and engineers have refined the structure of the magnet, optimized its manufacturing process, and achieved a stable magnetic field of 42.02 Tesla with a power supply of 32.3 MW, and the record of 41.4 Tesla, which It was recorded by the US National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in 2017.
China’s record-breaking magnet sets the stage for the developme of reliable magnets capable of sustaining even stronger magnetic fields, according to Joachim Wosnitza, a physicist at the Upper Magnetic Field Laboratory in Dresden, Germany. These advances could pave the way for researchers to discover unexpected new physics.
High-field magnets are esseial tools for investigating the hidden properties of advanced materials such as superconductors, which can carry electric curre at extremely low temperatures without generating waste heat. These powerful magnetic fields also offer opportunities to observe eirely new physical phenomena and manipulate states of matter, providing valuable insights io condensed matter physics.
According to Alexander Eaton, a condensed matter physicist at the University of Cambridge, high magnetic fields are particularly useful for experimes that require highly sensitive measuremes because they increase resolution and make it easier to detect subtle phenomena. Each additional tesla significaly improves the accuracy of these measuremes, enabling clearer insights io obscure physical effects.
Guangli Kuang, a high magnetic field expert at the SHMFF (Chinese Academy of Sciences Permane High Magnetic Field Facility), explained that the team spe years refining the magnet to achieve this new record, noting that the achieveme was not easy.
A new study highlights the benefits of resistive magnets
Resistive magnets, although older technology, can maiain high magnetic fields for longer periods of time than newer fully superconducting or hybrid magnets. They also have the advaage of rapidly increasing their magnetic fields, which makes them very versatile for experimes. However, their main disadvaage is their significa power consumption, which makes them expensive to operate. For example, the SHMFF resistive magnet required 32.3 MW of electricity to achieve its record-breaking field, necessitating a strong scieific justification for such resource use.
The challenge of high power consumption necessitates the developme of fully superconducting and hybrid magnets that can generate high magnetic fields with less energy. In 2019, NHMFL researchers built a small superconducting magnet that briefly achieved a field of 45.5 tesla, and are now working on a larger 40 tesla superconducting magnet for experimes. Meanwhile, the SHMFF team is building a 55 Tesla hybrid magnet. These newer magnets are expected to be cheaper than resistive magnets, but they also have their own challenges, such as higher manufacturing costs and complex cooling systems.
