New design of a superconducting magnet for generation of quasi-uniform magnetic force field

The generation of uniform field of magnetic forces exerted on diamagnetic or paramagnetic particles is a problem with various applications: magnetic separation of particles with small differential magnetic susceptibility, diamagnetic levitation, material processing crystallization of proteins, etc. Superconducting magnets that are usually investigated to generate uniform field of magnetic forces are solenoids but unfortunately these designs lead necessarily to a restricted levitation domain. This paper presents a novel conceptual design of superconducting coils able to give a satisfactory solution to the problem of magnetic levitation. The symmetry of the structures allows nonrestricted levitation domain. We study the possibility of using magnetic levitation so as to compensate the gravity in deuterium in a cylinder of 5 mm in diameter and 600 mm in length. The magnetic design has been calculated thanks to one analytical model and is based on particle accelerator designs. Then the structure has been numerically optimized to reach a magnetic force as large and homogenous as possible. Simulation results with reachable values of levitation force are presented.