Shaping magnetic fields with zero-magnetic-permeability media

Abstract

Some of the most important technological challenges of today’s society, such as fusion reactors for future clean unlimited energy or the next generation of medical imaging techniques, require precise spatial shapes of strong magnetic fields. Achieving these high fields is currently hindered by limitations such as large forces damaging the wires in coils or the saturation of ferromagnets at high fields. Here, we demonstrate a novel paradigm for creating magnetic landscapes. By enclosing magnetic sources within zero-magnetic-permeability (ZMP) media, a set of novel properties is unveiled. The magnetic field shape directly results from the contour of the outer surface of the ZMP enclosure, which allows the realization of basically any imaginable field landscape. Also, currents embedded in ZMP media can be fully magnetically isolated, which eliminates the forces in the wires, one of the main factors that currently impedes achieving very high magnetic fields. We confirm these properties, rooted in fundamental laws of electromagnetism, by numerical simulations and by proof-of-principle experiments using conventional high-temperature superconductors as ZMP materials, which showcase the practical applicability of our ideas. The freedom in the design of magnetic fields provided by ZMP media enables us to concentrate and homogenize magnetic fields with unprecedented precision, as needed in medical imaging techniques and particle-physics experiments, and to realize devices like perfect electromagnetic absorbers of mechanical vibrations.