A new magnet–of epic proportions–has been invented by a group of scientists and researchers at Florida State U. The new “split magnet” broke world records with its impressive 25-Tesla strength (Tesla is a unit used to describe the strength of a magnet) and its new split magnet system technology.
Jim Toth, Ph.D., is the main analyst and project leader. He and his team of engineers embarked on a mission to create this super-magnet a few years ago.
“This magnet has been requested for us by our users as far back as 10 years ago, and the timeline to build it was a year but there were time gaps in between,” Toth said. “We had to actually make new inventions and new technologies.”
The magnet is so unique and different because of its new split magnet system. The new system makes it 43 percent more powerful than the previous world’s best and has 1,500 times more space at the center, which allows room for more experimentation. Toth and his team had to refigure the structural limits of resistive magnets–magnets that use an electric current.
What resulted was the creation of a system that could withstand the high power magnetic fields created from such large research magnets. Since all of the magnet’s forces are at the center of the magnetic coil, the team had to build a split magnet made of four elliptical ports to handle the electric currents from the center.
“The previous records of magnets were small pin-sized holes–and only one going through the mid-plane where you could shine a light through the magnet,” said Toth. “This one has four elliptical-shaped ports that go through the magnet on all four sides.”
Toth and his team had to figure out the puzzle of how to allow a viewer to watch what was happening while also supporting 160,000 amps of electrical current and 3,500 gallons of water per minute moving through the mid-plane–plus the 500 tons of pressure pulling the magnet together.
Toth mentioned that building the elliptical ports was a feat–accomplishing the impossible.
“It takes a very successful team of designers from every field to come up with this,” said Toth. “We had cutting-edge 3D software, and we needed manufacturing to be done in-house because outside vendors were saying it is not possible to fabricate the parts.”
Toth and his team proved skeptics wrong when they unveiled the new magnet at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at FSU, where flocks of scientists and researchers rely on FSU’s magnets to conduct experiments.
The magnet will specifically be used to examine particular properties in the atoms and molecules of certain elements and materials when under extreme heat and pressure. When placed under heavy magnetic pressure, atoms and molecules are more easily observable and highlight features that would not be seen otherwise.
The first person to use it was a scientist from Kent State University and there is no doubt that more researchers and scientists will be vying to get their hands on the most powerful tesla magnet that exists to this day–beating the 17.5-Tesla French record.
Toth said that he feels honored to be a part of the team that created the magnet and knows that word of the magnet is buzzing around the scientific fields.
“From what I’m getting told from the scientists, they’re extremely excited,” Toth said. “The new opportunities that come with this tool just open the door for a whole fleet of experiments that were simply unthinkable before.”