Florida State University builds world's most powerful 'split magnet'

World's most powerful ‘split magnet’ which can operate at 25 Tesla has been built in the US, beating the previous record of 17.5 Tesla set up by the French. The magnet has been custom-built at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at Florida State University with the overall cost of $2.5 million. The funding came from National Science Foundation. You can imagine the magnitude of this force considering that it is equal to 5,00,000 times the earth's magnetic field. All this power is applied on a very small space where scientists would carry out their experiments.

Strongest split magnet

The magnet offers several advantages over its predecessors. It is not only 43 percent more powerful but also offers 1,500 times more space at the center, allowing scientists to carry out varied type of experiments. The magnet has holes on four sides, which are 6 cm tall and 15 cm wide. This would enable researchers to pass a laser inside the magnet and study their experiments.

However, building the magnet was a huge engineering challenge. The split magnet consists of two magnets that are kept just few centimeters apart from each other, without having the two halves slam together. A very high magnetic field is produced in the space between these magnets where the experiments are carried out on different samples. The magnet was made possible by the collaboration of engineering and research teams headed by a scientist, Dr Jack Toth. Toth's team cut large holes in the mid-plane of the magnet at 500 tons of pressure with 1,60,000 amps of current and 3,500 gallons of water per minute flowing through it.

The magnet will open new vistas for research in different fields such as nanotechnology, optics, and semiconductors. The project is meant primarily for experiments related to optical measurements for material research. It will help scientists enhance their study of electronic structure of materials. The discoveries made would be used to improve the quality of materials, which would lead to better products such as semiconductors for next-generation computers. Experiments related to the fields of physics, chemistry and biochemistry would also be conducted inside these magnets.

A scientist from Kent State University has already conducted his first experiment using the equipment studying how rapidly and in what direction light refracts, using a new type of liquid crystal, which has long molecules bent in the middle. This would help scientists study the phase transition never encountered before.

Via: BBC