June 12th, 2015

Oxford Instruments is pleased to announce that its high field magnet system recently commissioned at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida (National MagLab) has been used in prototype testing that has already reached a new record high field: 27 Tesla in an all-superconducting magnet. The so-called "outsert" magnet system from Oxford Instruments generates 15 T within a very large magnet bore of 250 mm, operating at 4.2 Kelvin. The additional 12 T came from high temperature superconducting (HTS) coils developed by the National MagLab. The 27 T result is a significant milestone on the way to the National MagLab's goal of a 32 T all-superconducting magnet.

Achieving this high field in an all-superconducting magnet is a major step in high field user capability at the National MagLab. When the project is completed in 2016, the National MagLab's 32 T magnet will be the world's most powerful superconducting magnet available to researchers. It will enable future-leading science, as well as removing the infrastructure requirements and costs associated with the resistive magnets typically used to generate magnetic fields greater than 30 T today.
The prototype HTS coils developed by National MagLab use 4 mm YBCO tape from SuperPower Inc. (Schenectady, NY) and were operated to 265 A in the full Oxford Instruments 15 T outsert magnet, for the combined magnet central field of 27 T at 4.2 K, the normal boiling point of liquid helium.
"This is the highest magnetic field reached in a fully superconducting system, and a world record indeed", commented Dr Ziad Melhem, Alliances Manager at Oxford Instruments. "This further confirms Oxford Instruments' world-class capability to develop state of the art high field superconducting magnet systems that are successfully used for such record-breaking projects, which will benefit researchers in both physical and life sciences for years to come".