SUPERCONDUCTING MAGNET FOR MICROCOIL NMR

DESCRIPTION (Verbatim from the Applicant's Abstract): The specific aims of this Phase I STTR project, proposed by the American Magnetics, Inc. in partnership with the MIT Francis Bitter Magnet Laboratory, are: 1) experimental demonstration of feasibility of innovative design and operation features applicable to NMR Nb3Sn-magnet/cryocooler systems; and 2) completion of a reference design for a prototype to be built by AMI in Phase II, based on which it targets to manufacture and market, in the next few years, a new class of such 350-400MHz (8.2-9.0 T) Nb3Sn-magnet/cryocooler systems, bench-top and "noise-free," for micro coil high resolution NMR spectroscopy. The innovative design and operation features, developed at FBML, include: 1) presence in the "cold body containing the magnet of solid nitrogen to enhance significantly the cold body's heat capacity; and 2) variation in the magnet's temperature, from 8 K when the cryocooler is decoupled from the cold body and idled to make the system quiescent ("noise-free"), until when the re-activated cryocooler is coupled to the cold body for recooling from 10 K to 8 K. NMR measurement is performed during each quiescent period, in commercial units, of about 8 hours, sufficient, for example, for 2D NMR spectra. This periodic measurement-recooling sequence may be continued ad infinitum. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: The American Magnetics, Inc. Targets to capture, in the next few years, a niche among the growing field of NMR spectroscopy instrumentation with a new class of bench-top "noise-free" Nb3 Sn-magnet/cryocooler systems, operatable at a frequency in the range 350-400 MHz (8.2-9.0 T), for microcoil high resolution NMR spectroscopy.