Earticle

Forefront ultrafast experimental techniques have recently proven their potential as new approaches to understand materials based on non-equilibrium dynamics in the time domain. The time domain approach is useful especially in disentangling complicated coupling among charge, spin and lattice degrees of freedom. Various ultrafast experiments on Fe-based superconductors have observed strong coherent oscillations of an A1g phonon mode of arsenic ions, which shows strong coupling to the electronic and magnetic states. This paper reviews the recent reports of ultrafast studies on Fe-based superconductor with a focus on the coherent oscillations. Experimental results with ultrashort light sources from the terahertz-infrared pulses to the hard X-rays from a free electron laser will be presented.

A series of high gradient superconducting magnetic separator (HGMS) for kaolin has been developed. It is used for processing kaolin to increase the brightness or whiteness whether it is for paper or ceramic applications. The HGMS system mainly consists of a solenoid magnet with a zero boil-off helium cryostat, a double reciprocating canisters system, and a PLC (Process Logic Controller) fully automatic control system based on SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system. We have successfully developed CGC-5.5/300 and CGC-5.0/500 HGMS systems in the recent years, and now three sets of them are on-site operation in different customers. This paper will present recent progress of the HGMS system, the results of some experiments on processing kaolin clay used HGMS, and the on-site operation.

Recently, DNA vaccination is attracting attentions as a new therapeutic method for lifestyle diseases and autoimmune diseases. However, its clinical applications are limited because a safe and efficient gene transfer method has not been established yet. In this study, a new method of gene transfer was proposed which utilizes the jet injection and the magnetic transfection. The jet injection is a method to inject medical liquid by momentary high pressure without needle. The injected liquid diffuses in the bio tissue and the endocytosis is considered to be improved by the diffusion. The magnetic transfection is a method to deliver the conjugates of plasmid DNA and magnetic particles to the desired site by external magnetic field. It is expected that jet injection of the conjugates causes slight membrane disruptions and the traction of the conjugates by magnetic field induces the efficient gene transfer. In conclusion, the possibility of improvement of the gene expression by the combination of jet injection and magnetic transfection was confirmed.

Water issue, especially water pollution, is a serious issue of 21st century. Being an significant technique for securing water resources, superconducting magnetic separation wastewater system was indispensable. A large bore conduction-cooled magnet was custom-tailored for wastewater treatment. The superconducting magnet has been designed, fabricated and tested. The superconducting magnet was composed of NbTi solenoid coils with an effective horizontal warm bore of 400 mm and a maximum central field of 2.56T. The superconducting magnet system was cooled by a two-stage 1.5W 4K GM cryocooler. The NbTi solenoid coils were wound around an aluminum former that is thermally connected to the second stage cold head of the cryocooler through a conductive copper link. The temperature distribution along the conductive link was measured during the cool-down process as well as at steady state. The magnet was cooled down to 4.8K in approximately 65 hours. The test of the magnetic field and quench analysis has been performed to verify the safe operation for the magnet system. Experimental results show that the superconducting magnet reached the designed magnetic performance.

Vanadium slags is a kind of vanadiferous solid waste from steelmaking process. It not only occupies land, pollutes environment, but also leads to waste of resources. Based on the difference of magnetic susceptibility of different particles caused by their chemical and physical properties from vanadium slag, a new technology, superconducting high gradient magnetic separation was investigated for separation and extraction of valuable substances from vanadium slag. The magnetic concentrate was obtained under optimal parameters, i.e., a particle size -200 mesh, a magnetic flux density of 0.8 T, a slurry concentration of 5 g/L, an amount of steel wools of 25 g and a slurry flow velocity of 2 L/min. The content of Fe2O3 in concentrate could be increased from 39.6% to 55.0% and V2O5 from 2.5% to 4.0%, respectively. The recovery rate is up to 42.9%, and the vanadium slag has been effectively reused.

Steel slag has been considered as an industrial waste. A huge amount of slag is produced as a byproduct and the steel slag usually has been dumped in a landfill site. However the steel slag contains valuable resources such as iron, copper, manganese, and magnesium. Superconducting magnetic separation has been applied on recovery of the valuable resources from the steel slag and this process also has intended to reduce the waste to be dumped. Cryo-cooled Nb-Ti superconducting magnet with 100 mm bore and 600 mm of height was used as the magnetic separator. The separating efficiency was evaluated in the function of magnetic field. A steel slag was ground and analyzed for the composition. Iron containing minerals were successfully concentrated from less iron containing portion. The separation efficiency was highly dependent on the particle size giving higher separating efficiency with finer particle. The magnetic field also effects on the separation ratio. Current study showed that an appropriate grinding of slag and magnetic separation lead to the recovery of metal resources from steel slag waste rather than dumping all of the volume.

We studied the distribution of the current density and its magnetic-field dependence in GdBCO coated conductors with AC bias currents using low temperature scanning Hall probe microscopy. We selectively measured magnetic field profiles from AC signal obtained by Lock-in technique and calculated current distributions by inversion calculation. In order to confirm the AC measurement results, we applied DC current corresponding to RMS value of AC current and compared distribution of AC and DC transport current. We carried out the same measurements at various external DC magnetic fields, and investigated field dependence of AC current distribution. We notice that the AC current distribution unaffected by external magnetic fields and preserved their own path on the contrary to DC current.

The effects of the crystallographic orientation and sample thickness on the magnetic levitation forces (F) and trapped magnetic field (B) of single grain YBCO bulk superconductors were examined. Single grain YBCO samples with a (001), (110) or (100) surface were used as the test samples. The samples used for the force-distance (F-d) measurement were cooled at 77 K without a magnetic field (zero field cooling, ZFC), whereas the samples used for the B measurement were cooled under the external magnetic field of a Nd-B-Fe permanent magnet (field cooling, FC). It was found that F and B of the (001) surface were higher than those of the (110) or (100) surface, which is attributed to the higher critical current density (Jc) of the (001) surface. For the (001) samples with t=5–18 mm, the maximum magnetic levitation forces (Fmaxs) of the ZFC samples were larger than 40 N. About 80% of the applied magnetic field was trapped in the FC samples. However, the F and B decreased rapidly as t decreased below 5 mm. There exists a critical sample thickness (t=5 mm for the experimental condition of this study) for maintaining the large levitation/trapping properties, which is dependent on the material properties and magnitude of the external magnetic fields.

The effects of MgB4 addition on the superconducting properties and the microstructure of in situ processed MgB2 bulk superconductors were studied. MgB4 powder of 1-20 wt.% was mixed with (Mg + 2B) powder and then pressed into pellets. The pellets of (Mg + 2B + xMgB4) were heat-treated at 650 ℃ for 1 h in flowing argon. The powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis for the heat-treated samples showed that the major formed phase in all samples was MgB2 and the minor phases were MgB4 and MgO. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) values showed that the grain size of MgB2 decreased as the amount of MgB4 addition increased. MgB4 particles included in a MgB2 matrix is considered to suppress the grain growth of MgB2. The onset temperatures (Tc,onset) of MgB2 with MgB4 addition (0-10 wt.%) was between 37-38 K. The 20 wt.% MgB4 addition slightly reduced the Tc,onset of MgB2 to 36.5 K. This result indicates that MgB4 addition did not influence the superconducting transition temperature (Tc) of MgB2 significantly. On the other hand, the small additions of 1-5 wt.% MgB4 increased the critical current density (Jc) of MgB2. The Jc enhancement by MgB4 addition is attributed not only to the grain size refinement but also to the possible flux pinning of MgB4 particles dispersed in a MgB2 matrix.

The effects of the heat treatment temperature (600℃-1050℃) on the formation of MgB2 and the superconducting properties have been examined. The self-synthesized MgB4 and commercial Mg powders were used as raw materials for the formation of MgB2. The superconducting critical temperatures (Tcs) of MgB2 bulk superconductors prepared at 600℃-850℃ were as high as 37-38 K regardless of the heat treatment temperature. However, because MgB4 is more stable than MgB2 at above 850℃, no superconducting signals were detected in the susceptibility-temperature curves of the samples prepared above 850℃. As for the critical current density (Jc), the sample heat-treated at a low temperature (600℃) for a prolonged period (40 h) showed a Jc higher than those prepared at 650℃-850℃ for a short period (1 h). The FWHM (full width at half maximum) result showed that the grain size of MgB2 of the 600℃ sample was smaller than that of the other samples. The high Jc of the 600℃sample is attributed to the presence of large numbers of grain boundaries, which can act as flux pinning centers of MgB2.

Carbon is proven to be very effective in pinning the magnetic vortices and improving the superconducting performance of MgB2 at high fields. In this work, we have used polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) polymer as a safe and cost effective carbon source. The effects of molecular weight of PMMA on crystal structure, microstructure as well as on superconducting properties of MgB2were studied. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that there is a noticeable shift in (100) and (110) Bragg reflections towards higher angles, while no shift was observed in (002) reflections for MgB2 doped with different molecular weights of PMMA. This indicates that carbon could be substituted in the boron honeycomb layers without affecting the interlayer interactions. As compared to undoped MgB2, substantial enhancement in Jc(H) properties was obtained for PMMA-doped MgB2 samples both at 5 K and 20 K. The enhancement could be attributed to the effective carbon substitution for boron and the refinement of crystallite size by PMMA doping.

To obtain Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) measurement of membrane protein, an NMR magnet is required to generate high intensity, homogeneity, and stability of field. A High-Temperature Superconducting (HTS) magnet is a promising alternative to a conventional Low-Temperature Superconducting (LTS) NMR magnet for high field, current density, and stability margin. Conventionally, an HTS coil has been wound by several winding techniques such as Single-Pancake (SP), Double-Pancake (DP), and layer-wound. The DP winding technique has been frequently used for a large magnet because long HTS wire is generally difficult to manufacture, and maintenance of magnet is convenient. However, magnetic field generated by the slanted turns and the splice leads to field inhomogeneity in Diameter of Spherical Volume (DSV). The field inhomogeneity degrades performance of NMR spectrometer and thus effect of the slanted turns and the splice should be analyzed. In this paper, field gradient of HTS double-pancake coils considering the slanted turns and the splice was calculated using Biot-Savart law and numerical integration. The calculation results showed that magnetic field produced by the slanted turns and the splice caused significant inhomogeneity of field.