Operating experience of the United States National High Magnetic Field Laboratory 60 T Long Pulse Magnet
The 60 T Long-Pulse (60 T LP) magnet system has provided controlled power magnetic field pulses to experimentalists since August 3, 1998. This magnet system is installed as part of the user facility research equipment at the National High Magnetic Laboratory (NHMFL) Pulsed Field Facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The 60 T LP magnet is the first of its kind in the United States and produces the highest field in its class, routinely providing a 60 T pulsed field of 100 ms flat-top duration in a 32 mm diameter bore. In addition, numerous other controlled pulse shapes at 60 T and lower fields have been provided. Since the start of commissioning on September 17, 1997 the magnet has been pulsed in excess of 800 times at various field levels. More than 600 magnet pulses have been provided to experiments and almost 400 of these were at 60 T. Operating statistics including coil system and inductance and resistance histories are presented. Operating and maintenance experience and issues are discussed as well as realizable improvements and upgrades to the magnet.
Design and testing of a 320 MW pulsed power supply
For a 60 Tesla, 100 millisecond long pulse magnet five 64 MW (87.6 MVA) power converter modules have been installed. Each module provides a no-load voltage of 4.18 kV and a full load voltage of 3.20 kV at the rated current of 20 kA. The modules are connected to a 1430 MVA/650 MJ inertial energy storage generator set, which is operated at 21 kV and frequencies between 60 and 42 Hz. They are designed to provide the rated power output for 2 seconds once every hour. Each module consists of two 21 kV/3.1 kV cast coil transformers and two 6-pulse rectifiers connected in parallel without an interphase reactor, forming a 12-pulse converter module. As far as possible standard high power industrial converter components were used, operated closer to their allowable limits. The converters are controlled by three programmable high speed controllers. In this paper the design of the pulsed converters, including control and special considerations for protection schemes with the converters supplying a mutually coupled magnet system, is detailed. Test results of the converters driving an ohmic-inductive load for 2 seconds at 20 kA and 3.2 kV are presented.
Coherent pulsed injection seeding of two gain-switched semiconductor lasers
High-power, narrow-spectrum, short pulses at a wavelength near 830 nm are needed for optical logic applications. The authors report the generation of two coherent trains of pulses by pulsed injection seeding of two gain-switched semiconductor lasers with one mode-locked master oscillator. The available power was doubled and both lasers emit in nearly identical spectral lines. Short pulses (30-50 ps) are generated at a repetition rate of 1.9 GHz. The spectrum is reduced to a single mode cluster and shows a 1.7 AA wide chirp suitable for pulse compression. The peak power is 0.1 W for each pulse train. The capability of this technique for coherent power combining is demonstrated.<<ETX>>