Philips and Siemens recently developed and commercialized the magnetic resonance imaging(MRI)with a liguid helium free superconducting magnet respectively. I suppose they must use a conventional superconductor such as Nb alloys, as the magnetic coil in the MRI. Is it possible to make Nb alloy be superconducting in the absence of liquid helium?
From what I've read, there are several MRI systems in development that do not require liquid helium, but as the manufacturers report:
"The system relies on cooling rather than the liquid helium commonly used to cool its key components, which include magnets and superconductors." .."
I couldn't read information on how "cooling" works and as far as I know Nb (-Ti) based alloys used for superconducting coils have a critical temperature of ~10 kelvins
Thank you for your reply.
It is nice that liquid He free superconducting MRI will be installed in every Japanese hospital .
Yes Akihiko Inoue, it's really cool mainly because of the scarcity of He gas reserves on earth
Best regards
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