High Magnetic Field Science
and Its Application in
the United States
CURRENT STATUS AND
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
Committee to Assess the Current Status and Future Direction of
High Magnetic Field Science in the United States
Board on Physics and Astronomy
Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, D.C.
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001
NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DMR-1108705 and by the U.S. Department of Energy under Grant No. DE-SC0006889. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project.
Cover: Background image: Round wire Bi-2212, a new high field superconductor technology, courtesy of the Applied Superconductivity Center, National Magnetic Field Laboratory. Images from left to right: (1) Electronic band structure engineering, from B. Hunt, J.D. Sanchez-Yamagishi, A.F. Young, et al., 2013, Massive Dirac fermions and Hofstadter butterfly in a van der Waals heterostructure, Science 340:1427-1430; reprinted with permission from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). (2) Superconducting thick film (Ytrium-123), courtesy of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. (3) A bismuth atom, positioned in silicon crystal, whose nuclear spin potentially can host quantum information; artwork from the London Centre for Nanotechnology by Manuel Vögtli. (4) Close-up view of fiber tracts in the retina, courtesy of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory.
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-28634-3
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-28634-4
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013951030
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Copyright 2013 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
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Advisers to the Nation on Science, Engineering, and Medicine
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COMMITTEE TO ASSESS THE CURRENT STATUS AND FUTURE DIRECTION OF HIGH MAGNETIC FIELD SCIENCE IN THE UNITED STATES
BERTRAND I. HALPERIN, Harvard University, Chair
GABRIEL AEPPLI, University College of London
YOICHI ANDO, Osaka University
MEIGAN ARONSON, Stony Brook University
DIMITRI BASOV, University of California, San Diego
THOMAS F. BUDINGER, University of California, Berkeley
ROBERT DIMEO, National Institute of Standards and Technology
JOHN C. GORE, Vanderbilt University
FRANK HUNTE, North Carolina State University
CHUNG NING (JEANIE) LAU, University of California, Riverside
JAN CORNELIS MAAN, Radboud University Nijmegen
ANN MCDERMOTT, Columbia University
JOSEPH MINERVINI, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
NAI PHUAN ONG,1 Princeton University
ARTHUR P. RAMIREZ, University of California, Santa Cruz
ZLATKO B. TESANOVIC,2 Johns Hopkins University
ROBERT TYCKO, National Institutes of Health
Staff
JAMES C. LANCASTER, Director
CARYN J. KNUTSEN, Associate Program Officer
TERI G. THOROWGOOD, Administrative Coordinator
________________
1 Nai Phuan Ong resigned from the committee on May 18, 2012.
2 Zlatko B. Tesanovic passed away on July 26, 2012.
BOARD ON PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY
PHILIP H. BUCKSBAUM, Stanford University, Chair
DEBRA M. ELMEGREEN, Vassar College, Vice Chair
RICARDO BETI, University of Rochester
ADAM S. BURROWS, Princeton University
TOD DITMIRE, University of Texas, Austin
NATHANIEL J. FISCH, Princeton University
PAUL FLEURY, Yale University
STUART FREEDMAN, University of California, Berkeley
S. JAMES GATES, University of Maryland
LAURA H. GREENE, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
MARTHA P. HAYNES, Cornell University
MARK B. KETCHEN, IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center
MONICA OLVERA DE LA CRUZ, Northwestern University
PAUL SCHECHTER, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
BORIS SHRAIMAN, Kavli Institute of Theoretical Physics
MICHAEL S. TURNER, University of Chicago
ELLEN D. WILLIAMS, PB International
MICHAEL S. WITHERELL, University of California, Santa Barbara
Staff
JAMES C. LANCASTER, Director
DONALD C. SHAPERO, Senior Scholar
DAVID B. LANG, Program Officer
CARYN J. KNUTSEN, Associate Program Officer
TERI G. THOROWGOOD, Administrative Coordinator
BETH DOLAN, Financial Associate
ZLATKO B. TESANOVIC
1956-2012
The Committee to Assess the Current Status and Future Direction of High Magnetic Field Science in the United States dedicates this report to a dear friend and valued colleague, Zlatko Tesanovic, who served as a member of this committee, and contributed strongly to it, until his untimely death on July 26, 2012. Zlatko was a condensed matter theorist, with particular research interests in the areas of superconductivity and strongly correlated electron materials. However, his broad knowledge of condensed matter physics, his deep understanding of the effects of strong magnetic fields, and his talent for exposition were influential throughout this report.
Preface
High-field magnets have become an important research tool in many scientific disciplines. Originally developed for studying the characteristics of materials under extreme conditions, they have increasingly been used by other disciplines, including biology, chemistry, and geology, and have found applications beyond basic science, serving many applied fields from medicine to the petroleum industry. In the United States, high-magnetic-field research principally takes place at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (NHMFL), operated under the auspices of the National Science Foundation (NSF). In the more than 20 years that it has been in existence, NHMFL has emerged as the leading facility in the world for providing researchers, and others, access to the highest magnetic fields available while working at the forefront of developing magnet technology for future users.
In line with this investment, the U.S. government has periodically commissioned a review of the current status and future prospects of the field. The most recent previous review was commissioned in 2003 and its conclusions were published in the National Research Council report Opportunities in High Magnetic Field Science (The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 2005). At the request of NSF, the National Research Council established the current committee in the spring of 2012 to provide an updated review. The Committee to Assess the Current Status and Future Direction of High Magnetic Field Science in the United States was asked to assess the needs of the U.S. research community for high magnetic fields and to determine the status and identify trends in the use of high magnetic fields throughout science and technology. Based on its assessment, the committee was asked to provide guidance for the future of magnetic-field research and technology
development in the United States, taking into account worldwide capabilities and any potential for international collaborations or cooperative arrangements. A full statement of the charge to the committee may be found in Appendix A of this report. This report is the work of that committee in response to its charge.
In the course of its efforts, the committee heard from a number of people who either are responsible for providing the capabilities offered through the NHMFL or are among the scientists and agents of federally funded programs relying on those facilities to conduct their research or to meet their programmatic needs. The committee is grateful to those individuals for their information and insights—their presentations and the discussions that followed served as a valuable resource for the committee. The committee is also grateful to the NHMFL staff in Tallahassee and at Los Alamos National Laboratory for their hospitality when members of the committee visited. Finally, I thank the members of this committee and the NRC staff for their diligent efforts in producing this report.
Bertrand I. Halperin, Chair
Committee to Assess the Current Status and Future Direction of
High Magnetic Field Science in the United States
Acknowledgment of Reviewers
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National Research Council’s (NRC’s) Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this report:
Amy Andreotti, Iowa State University,
Helene Benveniste, Brookhaven National Laboratory,
Collin Broholm, Johns Hopkins University;
Laura Greene, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
Neil Kelleher, Northwestern University,
Robert Lindeman, Northrop Grumman (retired),
D. Bruce Montgomery, Magplane Technology,
Andrew Sessler, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and
Mansour Shayegan, Princeton University.
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations, nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The
review of this report was overseen by John F. Ahearne, Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society. Appointed by the NRC, he was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.
Contents
Importance of Strong Magnetic Fields
Magnets for High Magnetic Fields
Facilities and Stewardship Issues
Principal Conclusions and Recommendations
Centralized and Distributed Facilities
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Facilities
Combining Magnetic Fields with Scattering Facilities and Terahertz Radiation
Magnetic Resonance Imaging Magnet Development
High Magnetic Field Studies of Low-Dimensional, Frustrated, and Quantum Magnets
High Fields for Frustrated Multifunctional Materials
Quantum Matter Probed by High Magnetic Fields
Superconductors in High Magnetic Fields: An Expanding Frontier
High-Temperature Superconductivity in Copper Oxides
High-Temperature Superconductivity in Iron Pnictides and Chalcogenides
The Next Ten Years for High-Temperature Superconductors
Low-Dimensional Semiconductor or Semimetal Systems
High Magnetic Fields in Soft Matter Research
3 HIGH MAGNETIC FIELDS IN CHEMISTRY, BIOCHEMISTRY, AND BIOLOGY
Principles of NMR and Importance of High Fields in NMR
Recent Trends and Achievements in NMR
Future Prospects and International Perspective on NMR
Electron Paramagnetic Resonance
4 MEDICAL AND LIFE SCIENCE STUDIES (MRI, fMRI, MRS) ENABLED BY 20 TESLA
Development of Human Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy
Chronology of High-Field Developments Leading to High-Field MRI and MRS
Medical Science and Mammalian Physiology
Potentials for Studies of Eleven Species Other Than Protons
Selected Horizons for Proton Studies at 20 T
Enhanced Contrast from Susceptibility Differences
Potentials for Traveling Wave MRI at Short-Wavelength Proton Magnetic Resonance
Interactions of High Magnetic Fields with Imaging Gradients
Gradient Amplitude Requirements for Low γ Nuclei
Finding, Conclusion, and Recommendation
5 OTHER HIGH-FIELD MAGNET APPLICATIONS
Radiotherapy Using Charged Particles
6 COMBINING HIGH MAGNETIC FIELDS WITH SCATTERING AND OPTICAL PROBES
Bringing High Magnetic Fields to Neutron and X-ray Scattering Facilities
Combining Optical Probes and High Magnetic Fields
Magneto-Optical Experiments in the Far Infrared
Other High-Field Magnet Applications
Charged Particle Radiotherapy and Radionuclide Production Medical Applications
8 INTERNATIONAL LANDSCAPE OF HIGH-MAGNETIC-FIELD FACILITIES
Scale of High-Magnetic-Field Facilities
Technical Challenges in Making the Highest Magnetic Fields
Opportunities for Collaboration
Recommendations and Conclusion
9 STEWARDSHIP AND RELATED ISSUES
Centralization Versus De-centralization
Stewardship of High-Magnetic-Field Science in the United States
Workforce Education and Training
D Committee Member Biographies
F MRI—Safety and Potential Health Effects
G Short Description of Large Research Facilities for High Magnetic Fields