Bell Labs: World-record magnets for condensed matter physics research
Greg Boebinger holding part of a second magnet coil from a 72T pulsed magnet that had been cut in half to facilitate post-pulse analysis.
Reflections by Gregory S. Boebinger
Gregory S. Boebinger, “World-Record Magnets for Condensed Matter Physics Research” (.pdf, 607 kb)This essay by Greg Boebinger describes the process by which he and technician Al Passner developed a record-setting pulsed field magnet at Bell Labs in the early 1990s. Greg obtained his PhD from MIT in 1986 and was offered a permanent position at Bell Labs as Member of Technical Staff during the first year of his postdoc at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris.
Prior to the time of Greg’s work, active research frontiers for new correlated electron states, including the fractional quantum Hall effect and Wigner crystallization, called for large magnetic fields. As his new pulsed magnets were becoming operational, it became increasingly clear to Greg that large magnetic fields could open a new frontier for research on high-Tc superconductivity by suppressing the superconducting state using magnetic fields in order to study the properties of the underlying physics in the low-temperature limit. As such, the impetus to push the boundaries was strong and Greg describes the discovery process in good detail in his reflections here.
Greg left Bell Labs in 1998 to head up the Los Alamos branch of the National High Magnetic Field Lab. There, he worked with a large team to expand the efficacy of pulsed magnetic fields as a research tool for scientists visiting from around the world. In 2004, Greg was named director of the National High Magnetic Field Lab, relocating to its headquarters as a professor of physics at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. In 2024, he stepped down from the directorship, leaving a legacy of extraordinary accomplishments in the development of high magnetic fields and in the support of related technologies and experimental techniques.
Cite this resource
Gregory S. Boebinger, “World-record magnets for condensed matter physics research,” History of Bell Labs Physical Research, 1980–2006 collection, edited by Arthur Ramirez, Cherry Murray, and David Bishop, American Institute of Physics, 2026, https://www.aip.org/history/bell-labs-physical-research-1980-2006/world-record-magnets.