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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 February 2011
The national high magnetic field laboratory builds and uses various highfield magnets for fundamental research. In building high field magnets, avariety of high strength composites are required because of the Lorentzstresses generated by high field exceeding the strength of most of thematerials, particular conductors. For example, a field of 60 T can generatea magnetic pressure that corresponds to a stress in the conductor of 1.5GPa, which is at the limit of known conducting materials with conductivityhigher than 70% International Annealed Copper Standard and sizes suitablefor building high field magnets. The design of high field magnets is limitedby these forces and, consequently, by the available materials. At the sametime, the materials need to have excellent physical properties. Forinstance, the conductors need to have high electrical conductivity and highspecific heat and the superconductors should have high critical current infield and low alternative current losses. This paper outlines ourrequirements and research on metal matrix composite materials for buildinghigh field magnets. The discussions include both the macrocomposite andmicrocomposite. The scales of the structures in the composites are frommillimeters to nanometers.