Waveform Control Pulsed Field Magnetization of RE-Ba-Cu-O Bulk Superconducting Rings

Abstract

One of the potential applications of ring-shaped, single grain RE-Ba-Cu-O bulk superconductors is in desktop magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) systems as an alternative to conventional permanent magnets. The higher magnetic field available from magnetized bulk superconductors could significantly improve the performance of such systems, as well as reduce their size and increase portability. The pulsed field magnetization (PFM) method provides a fast, compact and cost-effective method for magnetizing these materials as trapped field magnets. However, bulk superconducting rings are very susceptible to thermomagnetic instabilities during the PFM process, and thus, to date, the reported trapped fields in ring bulks magnetized by PFM are less than 0.35 T at the centre of single rings. In this work, we demonstrate that the trapped field in a superconducting ring bulk can be enhanced significantly by optimizing the waveform of the magnetizing pulse used in the PFM method. This optimization can be achieved easily by using an Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor as a fast-switching device with a controllable switching frequency in the pulse-generating electric circuit. Our findings represent a key step forward in utilizing bulk, single-grain superconducting rings magnetized by PFM in portable magnet systems.