Flux Magazine Vol 3 Issue 2

1 aap publicationpublubblblicaicicatioti non ofoftf thethehe NationalNatNaNata iononalal HighHiHighhM MagneticMagnagagngneetttiic FFieldiieelelddL LLaboratoryaboababoboratraata oryoor SECTION In This IssueVOLUME 3: ISSUE 2 FEATURES IT TAKES THREE A LITTLE TINKERING, A BIG RECORD EDITORS’ NOTE FLUX STAFF REPORT The lab’s varied research is made 14 Mag Lab staff rework a resistive magnet to break their own record. possible by its three campuses. 4 DRAWN TO SCIENCE BY DAVE BARFIELD 8 AND AMY MAST ON THE PULSE How elementary school kids see Mag Lab science versus the real thing. BY SUSAN RAY Our Los Alamos magnet lab packs a big punch. 12 MAGNET MAKEOVER BY STEPHEN MCGILL How the split coil magnet will change magnet science. 6 Flux is a twice-yearly publication dedicated to exploring the research, magnet technology, and science outreach conducted at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Florida. Want to get some extra copies for a classroom or a favorite science buff ? Contact Amy Mast at [email protected]. ABOUT Subscribe to Flux at http://www.magnet.fsu.edu/mediacenter/publications/subscribe.aspx flux Explore the Magnet Lab flux NATIONAL HIGH MAGNETIC FIELD LABORATORY 1800 E. Paul Dirac Drive 30 Tallahassee , FL 32310-3706 The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, or Magnet Lab, is a national user facility that provides state of the art research resources for magnet related research in all areas of science and engineering. The Magnet Lab is supported by the National Science Foundation and the State of Florida, and is operated by Florida REGULAR FEATURES State University, the University of Florida and Los Alamos National Laboratory. SCIENTIST MAG LAB DIRECTOR WHAT IS THIS? 16 SPOTLIGHT 20 Greg Boebinger Go insideins our slim ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR FOR MANAGEMENT Meet UF chemist AND ADMINISTRATION superconductorsupe Brian Fairhurst Joanna Long BYB AMY MAST BY AMY MAST DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS Susan Ray FLUX EDITOR SCIENCE KITCHEN TABLE Amy Mast STARTS HERE SCIENCE WEBMASTER 22 24 Dave Barfi eld ART DIRECTION AND PRODUCTION Undergrad made good Make your own circuit Stephanie Law Savoy Brown BY CARLOS R. VILLA BY AMY MAST 3D ILLUSTRATIONS Kevin John Trying to reduce your carbon footprint? MAGNET FACT MAGNET 26 OR FICTION 28 MILESTONES Michael Faraday’s Is it safe to visit or work self-taught near high magnetic fi elds? Sign up for an online subscription at innovation http: //www.magnet.fsu.edu/mediacenter/ BY AMY MAST BY AMY MAST publications/subscribe.aspx SECTION Three labs one research mission "It might come as a surprise to many readers, but FSU, the University of Florida and Los Alamos National Laboratory jointly operate the Magnet Lab..." flux volume 3 issue 2 4 EDITORS’ NOTE ew things make the director of How did it get to be this way? The tale fi eld, the more power needed to operate the National High Magnetic Field begins in the late 1980s, when a small them. Los Alamos National Lab was home FLaboratory wince more than hearing group of leaders from diff erent corners to a 1.4-gigawatt generator, just the thing the lab described as, “FSU’s Magnet Lab.” of the country crafted a vision for a needed to build up a very high fi eld premier research facility that would build pulsed-magnet program. UF was home to It’s not that Greg Boebinger doesn’t and operate the world’s most powerful the Microkelvin Lab, a facility that coupled love and appreciate The Florida State magnets. Jack Crow of FSU, Don Parkin high magnetic fi elds with extremely low University. Of course he does; heck, he’s a of Los Alamos in New Mexico and Neil temperatures, and a fi rst-rate magnetic faculty member, as are many of the other Sullivan of the University of Florida co- resonance imaging research facility. And scientists who work at the lab. He just developed the proposal for this new FSU was aggressively building up its prefers to hear, “The Magnet Lab at FSU.” entity, to be operated collaboratively by materials science and condensed matter the three institutions and headquartered physics research programs, providing Why such apparent semantics? It near FSU. three new buildings and the means to might come as a surprise to many readers, hire the research scientists needed for but FSU, the University of Florida and They secured the backing of key Florida the Magnet Lab’s future headquarters. Los Alamos National Laboratory jointly offi cials and submitted their proposal to The three partners’ combined expertise operate the Magnet Lab for the National the National Science Foundation in 1989. and support from the state of Florida Science Foundation, with sites at each of In so doing, the team challenged the proved irresistible, and to this day, no those locations. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, other country in the world off ers this home to the Francis Bitter National combination of research capabilities in The FSU branch is the lab’s Magnet Laboratory, founded a quarter of one organization. headquarters, and at 370,000 square feet, a century earlier. it is by far the largest facility and home In this issue, you’ll learn about the to four of the lab’s seven user programs, This is the perfect spot to introduce unparalleled punch packed by the as well as the Applied Superconductivity one of the other things that makes pulsed magnets at Los Alamos and you’ll Center. FSU, as the signatory of the Boebinger wince: When people say (some meet Joanna Long, a UF biochemistry NSF agreement that established the quite proudly) that FSU “stole” the Magnet professor who assumed leadership of lab, is responsible for establishing and Lab from MIT. the Magnet Lab’s Advanced Magnetic maintaining administrative and fi nancial Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy oversight of the lab, and ensuring that the No, FSU’s Crow and his partners did (AMRIS) program in 2009. Stephen McGill, operations are in line with the objectives not “steal” the Magnet Lab from MIT; they a physicist who specializes in optics outlined in the NSF agreement. earned it following a stringent peer-review research, will explain (don’t worry, in lay competition, following which the National terms) the lab’s new split coil magnet, Photo by David Barfi eld Science Board awarded the National which will be added to the lab’s research Though the lab’s three branches all make high fi eld High Magnetic Field Laboratory to the arsenal in 2011. These and other articles research possible, the magnets they utilize can be consortium that included FSU. track progress toward important Magnet very diff erent. This photo illustration shows the Lab goals: growing the user programs, diff erent kinds of magnet technology in place, from Still, why are there three sites? fostering collaboration among diverse pulsed magnet coils (far right) to cable-in-conduit disciplines, and pushing the envelope High fi eld magnets are very specialized conductor (lower left) to the traditional resistive of innovation, no matter the ZIP code in instruments with very specifi c research magnets coil (top rear). which the research takes place. capabilities. The higher the magnetic 5 a publication of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory SECTIONFEATURE EXTREME MAKEOVER: MAGNET EDITION BY STEPHEN MCGILL Assistant Scholar/Scientist re you ready to witness an extreme by shining light on them. Looking at which makeover? Well, ready or not, a kinds of light are absorbed or refl ected at Amakeover is coming to the Mag diff erent angles gives researchers insight Lab this year. Now don’t expect to see Ty into the fundamental electronic structure Pennington or his design team running of matter, and that’s the kind of stuff up and down the halls with a fi lm crew that over decades has led to smaller and from ABC, because that’s not the kind of faster computers, and other quality-of-life makeover we are talking about. enhancements. There will be no large-scale demolition Engineering the near impossible This computer generated model shows the coil deformations in the Split Florida Helix or a new building going up in one week’s Most of the resistive magnets at the magnet. time. No, this makeover is one that has Mag Lab produce a magnetic fi eld by been years in the making, and it's being running current through a continuous If a measurement can be done by carried out by the designers and engineers metal strip shaped into a helix. (A helix attaching wires to the sample, then the in the lab’s Magnet Science & Technology is the curve formed when a material is sample accessibility down the bore might division. Soon their plans will take shape wrapped around a round cylinder.) By seem luxuriously roomy since wires are inside one of the magnet bays of the lab’s increasing the current or the number of small, fl exible, and can be routed to the DC Field Facility. The magnet they will loops in that helix, it is possible to make sample at the center of the magnet. build there throughout this year is unlike the magnetic fi eld stronger. Because However, what happens when optical any other resistive magnet at the Magnet of the engineering requirements of access to a sample is suddenly required? Lab, or even the rest of the world. We are generating large magnetic fi elds, these How does a person route electromagnetic about to experience an extreme magnet magnets typically only have openings at waves at optical frequencies from the far- makeover: the construction of the Split either end of a long, small-diameter tube, infrared to ultraviolet down to and then Florida Helix magnet.

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