What is a superconducting magnet?

We already know that superconductor is a material whose resistance will completely disappear at a certain critical temperature. What is the relationship between superconducting magnets and superconductors? It turns out that electric field and magnetic field interact with each other. In the application of superconducting materials, if one or more superconducting coils are used to form a device to generate a magnetic field, ordinary superconducting materials are easily affected by the magnetic field and lose superconductivity, so it seems that superconductivity and magnetism cannot be taken into account at the same time. This problem was not solved until the superconductivity of niobium zirconium, niobium titanium and niobium tin compound materials was discovered in the 1960s. Superconducting magnets are such superconductors that keep their magnetism.

Superconducting magnet will not lose energy when it runs under the condition of direct current, and a huge magnetic field can be generated by strong current. In addition, it has stable magnetism, high uniformity of magnetic field in space, small volume and light weight, so it is widely used. It has important practical functions and great application prospects in the fields of electrician, transportation, medical care, military industry and scientific experiments, and some of them have achieved practical benefits. For example, magnetic resonance imaging equipment using superconducting magnets has become one of the most popular clinical diagnostic equipment in hospitals, and thousands of magnetic resonance imaging equipment have been used in hospitals all over the world. In addition, scientific instruments such as superconducting nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer have also become commodities and have been widely used.