Brookhaven Lecture

BNL has always been a leader in the world of superconducting magnets, which are essential to the great modern ccelerators such as the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at BNL, or the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, Switzerland. These magnets are made of material that, cooled to 4 Kelvins (K) (-452° Farenheit) become superconducting, that is, lose essentially all resistance to electricity. For the past decade, however, Lab researchers have been exploring the use of new materials that become superconducting at higher temperatures. These materials can operate at the relatively high temperature of 77 K (-351°F), allowing them to be cooled by cheap, plentiful liquid nitrogen, rather than helium, and can create very high magnetic fields. Now far in the lead of this area of research, BNL scientists are exploring avenues for high temperature superconducting magnets that are energy efficient and have magnetic fields that are a million times stronger than the Earth's. If successful, these new magnets could potentially revolutionize usage in future accelerators, play a key role in energy efficiency and storage, and make possible new applications such as muon colliders and MRI screening in remote areas.