Founded by researchers who work at the intersection of quantum technologies, precision sensing, material science and nanotechnology, a scientific instrument company in Australia has developed a trio of compact instruments for providing highly uniform in-plane magnetic fields. The company, Elemental Instruments, has designed the three models in their FLUX Series to match the needs of different applications.
High strength magnetic fields are used in applications that range from medical imaging to chemical analysis, material science and particle physics. Traditionally, tunable fields are produced using large electrical currents, requiring bulky power supplies and cooling systems. The three instruments represent an alternative approach that uses a special configuration of permanent magnets. The series offers an attractive combination of performance, robustness, reliability and compactness.
Founded in 2020 by scientists from the University of Queensland, Elemental Instruments has grown to address what its founders perceived as unmet needs within research laboratories and the growing global quantum supply chain — particularly, the need to create tunable uniform magnetic fields for quantum computing and sensing, magnetic material characterization, and experiments in biology and physics.
The founders, both with the university’s School of Mathematics & Physics and its Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Quantum Biotechnology, are Dr Glen Harris, adjunct research fellow, and Professor Warwick Bowen who is director of the center, known as Qubic.
The instruments weigh only about 6.5 kg. They can operate in petri dishes and incubators or be integrated into microscopes. Unlike electromagnets, they operate unpowered except when adjusting the magnetic field, thus avoiding off-target effects of excess heat generation since there is no need to actively cool coils.
FLUXuni is a high-quality instrument designed to provide exceptional simplicity, reliability and robustness in scientific and industrial applications. It provides high-uniformity in-plane magnetic fields with strength that can be varied by more than an order of magnitude with the turn of a dial. Maximum field strength is 0.31T, minimum is 0.03T. Uniformity is rated at +-2.5% within a 10mm-square area.
FLUXmoto is designed to meet the most rigorous standards in scientific and industrial applications. It provides high-uniformity in-plane magnetic fields with precisely motor-controlled strength and orientation, together with real-time magnetic field display. The field strength can be varied by more than an order of magnitude, and the orientation over a full 360 degrees. Maximum field strength is 0.28T, minimum is 0.01T
FLUXvario is a cost-effective solution that is robust and user-friendly. It provides in-plane magnetic fields with strength that can be widely varied with the turn of a dial. It is ideally suited to educational laboratories and physics demonstrations in schools and universities. Maximum field strength is 0.28T, minimum is 0.04T.
A magnetic field gradient has different physical effects to a uniform magnetic field, notes the company. The gradient is responsible for forces that cause movement, while a uniform field causes rotational alignment and quantum phenomena such as the Zeeman effect. Generating a uniform magnetic field ensures a consistent stimulus through the sample, allowing any effect of the magnetic field gradient to be separated from the magnetic field magnitude. See www.elemental-instruments.com.