Description
Superconducting magnets are a fundamental component for particle accelerators, enabling the high fields required to bend and focus charged particle beams while keeping power consumption within practical limits. This talk begins with an overview of the field, introducing the role of superconducting magnets in accelerator physics. Then, a very general description on the main conductor materials in use today, the most common conductor and magnet layouts and the phenomenon of quench, which drives many of the constraints on magnet design and protection, will be given.
The second part of the talk focuses on the so-called Uni-Layer (UL) magnet design, a novel coil configuration recently proposed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). By using an asymmetric current distribution within a single, continuous layer, the uni-layer concept avoids layer jumps altogether and increases the minimum bending radius seen by the conductor compared to traditional cosine-theta and canted-cosine-theta designs, while making more efficient use of the conductor. These characteristics are particularly advantageous for strain-sensitive high-temperature superconductors in high-field, small-aperture accelerator magnet applications. Building on this concept, the talk presents the design, fabrication and test of the first HTS uni-layer magnet prototype, based on CORC cable.
