Broschüre EMFL English

Europe’s highest magnetic fields are produced using the pulsed-field facilities of the EMFL laboratories in Dresden and Toulouse. 18 Why are the laboratories so big? Regardless of whether you find yourself at Nijmegen, Grenoble, Dresden, or Toulouse – each EMFL site is a big, factory-like building filled with cutting-edge technology capable of genera- ting the highest magnetic fields, and with sophisticated equip- ment for measuring tiny signals in the small samples. Next, the researchers will proudly explain to you that their magnets’ bore sizes are between five milli- metres and five centimetres in diameter. That doesn’t sound im- pressive? Oh, but it is! To create a magnetic field that is high enough to lift a droplet of water, the electrical power normally used by the inhabitants of an entire city district or a village is released and concentrated in one coil to create this high magnetic field. And handling the power and energies requires a lot of space. To keep the continuous-field magnets from melting, large amounts of water are pumped through them – roughly one bathtub full per second, at a high enough pressure to make a 300 metre fountain. Inside the pulsed-field labs, the coils are cooled down to a temperature of around minus 196 degrees Celsius using liquid nitrogen. ©UweTölle

Broschüre EMFL English

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