Conductor found for super supermagnet

EVANSTON, Ill., Feb. 12 (UPI) -- A U.S. research team says it has made a discovery that might allow creation of the most powerful superconducting magnet in the world.

The team led by Northwestern University physicist William Halperin has identified a high-temperature superconductor -- a compound containing bismuth, or Bi-2212, as a material that might allow construction of a 30 Tesla superconducting magnet.

The material currently used in magnetic resonance imaging machines in both hospitals and research laboratories -- a low-temperature superconducting alloy of the metallic element niobium -- has been pushed to around 21 Tesla. Tesla is used to define the intensity of the magnetic field.

There are no superconducting magnet wires currently available that can generate 30 Tesla.

"A new materials technology -- such as a technology based on high-temperature superconductivity -- is required to make the huge leap from 21 Tesla to 30 Tesla," said Halperin. "We have shown that Bi-2212 could be operated at the same temperature as is presently the case for magnets made with niobium -- 4 degrees Kelvin -- and also achieve the stable state necessary for a 30 Tesla magnet."

The findings are published online in the journal Nature Physics.