History.
Pulsed magnetic fields were first produced and use at Cambridge, in 1924, with the pioneering work of P.L. Kapitza.
Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa
In Toulouse, pulsed magnet production started in 1965, at Université Paul Sabatier under the initiative of S. Askénazy in the Laboratoire de Physique des Solides (LPS) with the strong support ofCharles Fert director of the laboratory.
During the first decade, S. Askénazy developed coils producing long duration pulsed magnetic fields up to 40T. Current through the coil was supplied by the discharge of a capacitor bank switched by ignitrons. He then set up a research team to use the field to study semiconductor quantum transport including J. Léotin, J.C. Portal and J.C. Ulmet. The team built up specific instrumentation, electronics, and cryogenics for pulsed magnetic field experiments and was soon successful at measuring quantum magneto-transport and optics in semiconductors, including Shubnikov de Haas, and magnetophonon oscillations, and far-infrared laser based cyclotron resonance. This work was developed in close collaboration with Pr. R.A. Stradling at the Clarendon Laboratory (Oxford), with Pr. P.R. Wallace at McGill University (Montreal) and with the support of J. Bok at Ecole Normale Supérieure. The novel feature of the Toulouse magnets was the long duration of pulses a few hundred milliseconds together with negligible coil vibrations. The power supply was based on 3kV capacitors storing 100kJ.
In 1975, the pulsed magnet set up expanded as a National Facility located on the campus of the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA) which was supported by CNRS, UPS and INSA and entitled Service National des Champs Magnétiques Pulsés (SNCMP). A new building was constructed to accommodate a set of four experimental set ups having their coils driven by a common power supply based on 1.25MJ (10kV) capacitor bank and a home-made mercury switch. Later, in 1980, the facility was upgraded by a novel switch based on high voltage thyritsors in series and simultaneously triggered by an optical fibre signal. [DOI:10.1117/12.935605]. This home-made technology paved the way for the next generation of pulsed magnet facilities around the world. Another step forward took place with the development of 60T coils made up of copper-wire reinforced with NbTi [DOI:10.1016/0921-4526(94)00934-N] as well as dilution cryogenics down to 100mK. [DOI:10.1016/0921-4526(94)01064-8]. During this second decade new lines of research started on magnetism, superconductivity and organic conductors. As a result, the SNCMP facility has welcomed growing numbers of visitors and established numerous collaborations at both national and international levels, which resulted in large number of publications.
