Researched
Superconducting Magnets
Niobium-tin wire (Bell Labs, 1961) carries huge currents without loss, making very strong magnets for accelerators, MRI and fusion machines.
Open in the interactive tree →John Kunzler and colleagues showed in 1961 that Nb3Sn wire stays superconducting in fields above 8 tesla; niobium-titanium became the workhorse. The LHC, MRI scanners and large fusion devices all rely on such magnets.
Prerequisites
Unlocks
- Higgs Boson Discovered2012The LHC's bending magnets are superconducting
- Fusion: Ignition & Records2022–2026ITER and compact fusion devices rely on superconducting magnets