The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory has broken the record for the highest-field “resistive” magnet with their recently upgraded 36-tesla magnet, which uses electricity to generate high magnetic fields.
The magnet was built in-house at the lab, and was designed to include circular plates of copper sheet metal that are combined with insulators to make a coil. When voltage is run across the coil, the current flows to make a magnetic field in the center. By adjusting the way they stacked the plates, they were able to increase the magnetic fields without causing too much stress on the coils.
“We believe this magnet has the potential to reach even higher fields,” said Jingping Chen, manager of the resistive magnet program at NHMFL. She says the lab plans to upgrade their other 35-tesla magnet this year, and their 31-tesla magnets will be upgraded to around 33 tesla.
The new record breaks the one previously held jointly by NHMFL and the Grenoble High Magnetic Field Laboratory in France.
