Because high‐magnetic‐field experiments have proved to be valuable tools for illuminating the physics of phenomena ranging from the quantum Hall effect to high‐temperature superconductivity, magnet laboratories around the world are constantly striving to produce more intense magnetic fields, using both continuous‐ and pulsed‐field magnets. To date, magnetic fields above 100 tesla have been achieved only by self‐destructing (exploding or imploding) magnet technologies. These intense magnetic fields persist for only a few microseconds, and most of the destructive‐magnet technologies also destroy the sample. However, the recent development of structurally stronger composite conductors has made feasible the design of pulsed magnets capable of nondestructively delivering 10‐ms 100‐T (that is, megagauss) pulses. (See the box on page 41). During the past five years, researchers in both Europe and the US have proposed building such magnets, along with experiments to exploit this new experimental regime.
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June 1996
June 01 1996
Correlated Electrons in a Million Gauss Available to Purchase
Researchers are planning experiments using million‐gauss magnets to investigate many of the most intriguing phenomena in condensed matter physics.
Physics Today 49 (6), 36–42 (1996);