PHYSICAL SCIENCES & ENGINEERING / DISTRIBUTED

EMFL

European Magnetic Field Laboratory
General Info
headquarters

European Magnetic Field Laboratory AISBL

Brussels, Belgium

legal status
type

distributed

access

physical

description
The European Magnetic Field Laboratory (EMFL) develops and operates the highest possible magnetic fields that can be used for scientific research, and making them available to the scientific community. The EMFL unites, coordinates and reinforces all existing European large-scale high magnetic field Research Infrastructures in a single body. These facilities are the Laboratoire National de Champs Magnétiques Intenses (LNCMI), with its sites for pulsed fields in Toulouse and continuous fields in Grenoble, the Dresden High Magnetic Field Laboratory (HLD) and the High Field Magnet Laboratory (HFML) in Nijmegen. The EMFL formally represents the national facilities to international partners and operates tasks, in particular the access program, of the parent laboratories. The UK community, represented by the University of Nottingham, joined EMFL at the end of 2015. The Polish community, represented by the University of Warsaw, joined EMFL in January 2019. The CEA-IRFU joined in December 2019 to further strengthen the magnet-technology efforts to develop the next generation of superconducting high-field magnets. Italy joined in december 2023. The parent organizations of the three facilities have created a legal structure in the form of an International not-for-profit Association under Belgian Law (AISBL) sited in Belgium. The AISBL statutes were signed in January 2015.
TIMELINE & ESTIMATED COSTS
Total Investment 170 M€ Design Preparation Implementation Operation 20 M€/year Project Landmark 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 2022 2024 2026 2028 2030 2032 2034 2036 2038 RM06 RM08 RM10 RM16 RM18 RM21 LA24
Roadmap Entry
as project: 2008
as landmark: 2016
Total investment
170 M€
Design Phase
Preparation Phase
2009-2012
Implementation Phase
2009-2014
Operation start
2014
20 M€/year
IMPACTS
The EMFL has developed transportable pulsed magnets and generators allowing fields of up to 40 tesla to be combined with large neutron, X-ray and laser sources impacting fundamental science programmes across disciplines. Neutron and synchrotron experiments in pulsed fields allow researchers to reveal the microscopic properties of matter; they are conducted jointly between the EMFL and a number of large facilities that are leaders in their field. Both in Dresden and Nijmegen the adjacent THz radiation facilities ELBE and FELIX Laboratory are connected to the high-field magnets and offer combined experiments. EMFL researchers also develop a compact and inexpensive beam delivery alternative for proton beam therapy. EMFL supports applied research for forming, joining, and welding metals by using the large compressive forces produced by very short and intense energy-efficient magnetic-field pulse technology with many extra benefits for economy and environment. Magnetic fields can help scientists reveal the hidden physical properties of new magnetic materials that can be used to create smaller, more efficient electric motors. EMFL supports the application of high-temperature superconductivity to energy storage and transport, and into developing magnetic levitation and was involved in the very first and is still participating in ongoing measurements demonstrating the enormous technological potential of graphene.
SERVICES
Access to high magnetic field facilities is offered on the basis of common proposal rounds every six months. The proposal are ranked by expert dedicated committees. Special first user access, industrial access, fast track access are possible. No mail-in and no remote experiments are implemented.
Interconnections
EMFL
S S H D I G I T E N E E N V H & F
COOPERATION WITH OTHER RIs
EMFL provides high magnetic field magnets in pulsed field at ILL (neutron source), LULI (Apollon) Lasers and ESRF (Synchrotron). It also exists a direct physical link between FELIX and EMFL/Nijmegen. Proposals have to be send to the dedicated infrastructure (not to EMFL proposal system). Management of energy is studied in common with ESS and ILE (Flexrican European project).