Superconducting magnets and their applications

Superconducting magnets are now being used in such diverse applications as medical imaging, fusion research, and power conditioning. Steady improvement in the understanding of instability and quenching has allowed increases in current density and compactness of winding. The resulting reduction in winding size has allowed the construction of economical magnets for imaging, acceleration, and high-resolution spectrometers. Large magnets for fusion and energy applications have been made possible by composite conductors containing large amounts of copper or aluminum. It is noted that the advent of high-temperature superconductors may hold the promise of very-high-field magnets. Meanwhile, low-temperature superconductors capable of generating fields up to 30 T have been developed. In either case, structural materials of greater strength than are now available and novel construction techniques will be needed