On September 22, a Chinese Academy of Sciences water-cooled magnet developed by the strong magnetic field science center of the Hefei Institute of physical sciences produced a steady-state magnetic field of 420,200 Gauss (42.02 Tesla) , it broke the world record of 414,000 Gauss in 2017, and became a new milestone in the development of water-cooled magnet technology. It is also a major technological breakthrough in the steady-state high-field experiment, which follows the success of hybrid magnets in 2022, which set the world steady-state magnetic record of 452,200 Gauss.
The steady-state strong magnetic field is an extreme experimental condition for the research of material science, and it is a“Sharp tool” to promote the important scientific discovery. Over the past decades, scientists all over the world have made many important achievements in the research under the condition of steady-state strong magnetic field, and more than 10 scientific achievements have won Nobel Prizes. At present, there are five strong steady-state magnetic field laboratories in the world, which are located in the United States, France, the Netherlands, Japan and Science Island of Hefei, China. Steady-state strong magnetic field magnet is divided into three types, namely, water-cooled magnet, superconducting magnet and the combination of water-cooled magnet and superconducting magnet hybrid magnet. Water-cooled magnet is the earliest type of magnet used by scientists. It has the advantages of flexible and fast magnetic field control, and has the advantages of being able to produce magnetic field strength far higher than that of superconducting magnet, it provides reliable and efficient experimental conditions for material science research.
With the support of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Anhui joint research project, the high magnetic field technology research team has innovated the magnet structure and optimized the manufacturing process after nearly four years of unremitting efforts, finally, 420,200 Gauss steady-state magnetic field is generated under 32.3 MW power supply, which marks a new peak of the development of strong magnetic field water-cooled magnet technology in China and even the world. The successful development of this magnet not only better satisfies the actual demand of scientific research users for fast-regulated steady-state strong magnetic field, but also provides powerful experimental conditions for scientists to explore new phenomena and reveal new laws, it has laid a key technical foundation for our country to construct a higher field strength steady state magnet.