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August 09 Issue - Employee Monthly Magazine Magnet-building duo relies on trust and collaboration
Mike Pacheco prepares to test probe components. Photo by Robb Kramer They were born on planet Earth, but Mike Pacheco and Dwight Rickel can unleash Earth-shaking forces at will. The source of their amazing superpowers is the massive electromagnets at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory’s Los Alamos Pulsed Field Facility. The electromagnets are as much as 6 million times stronger than the planet’s natural magnetism. To harness such crushing forces, Pacheco and Rickel, who have worked together on record-breaking electromagnets for 16 years, rely on their highly developed powers of trust, collaboration, and cooperation. But first, they had to build the magnet lab itself. “Together, we built this facility from the ground up, starting in 1992,” said Alex Lacerda, a former center leader. “There was a generator here and nothing else,” added Pacheco. The size of the colossal motor and generator is hard to fathom. The rotating part alone weighs more than 25 fully loaded cement trucks and spins at 1,800 revolutions per minute. The generator sits atop dozens of enormous springs to avoid shaking the surrounding countryside. Although they had the generator, they had little else. “We were trying to scrounge everything we could find that would be of any use,” Rickel said. “We essentially found a million dollars worth of parts to put together the first capacitor bank. It was like going to a giant salvage sale.” The Lab’s Pulsed Field Facility is one of three campuses of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory; the other two are at Florida State University, Tallahassee and the University of Florida, Gainesville. The NHMFL is sponsored primarily by the National Science Foundation with additional support from the State of Florida and the U.S. Departmentof Energy. Versatile magnet team Pacheco, a research technologist, is a hands-on guy who can build anything. “Mike is essentially an encyclopedia of materials, methods, and vendors. The postdocs are in his office all the time,” said Rickel, who is an applied physicist and pulse-power designer. As senior scientist, Rickel oversees the construction, commissioning, and operation of the lab’s large magnets. He designs the power systems that slam the energy from the 600-ton, 1.4 million-watt motor and generator into a fingersized area. Perhaps what makes Pacheco and Rickel such a super duo is that they can trade places in the wink of an eye. Rickel is usually in charge, but “I could go away, and Mike would take care of business,” Rickel said. Similarly, Rickel might step away from the drawing board to weld and fabricate. Collaborator Ross McDonald said, “Both of them go well beyond the boundaries of their traditional roles.” There is a tremendous overlap in their skills, so they work in elegant synchronization. The pair is proudest of their most recent accomplishment: the 100 Tesla Multishot Magnet, unique in the world because it doesn’t explode. Ordinarily, super-strong electromagnets are purposely ripped apart by explosive and electromagnet forces each time they are used. With the 100 T magnet, the power of as much as 100 sticks of dynamite is pumped into the magnet coils in a fraction of a second and the magnet survives intact. 
Dwight Rickel adjusts signal output at his workbench in the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. Photo by Robb Kramer Magnetic intensity What does it take to join this versatile team? Rickel suggested “a PhD physicist who liked to build rockets and bombs as a kid.” He went on to explain that “people who had the passion of science from an early age have a different skill set. They’re the ones who make things run.” And passion seems to drive both Pacheco and Rickel forward when it comes to their work. “I can call those guys at 2 a.m. Saturday, and they will deliver,” Lacerda said. Sharing this multidisciplinary zeal, said Rickel, are teammates Chuck Mielke, Ross McDonald, Jon Betts, and James Michel. “It’s nice to work with skilled people because you don’t have to say many words, and the job gets done,” he noted. Pacheco and Rickel’s work is known around the world, but like all superheroes, they are humble. “It’s not really magic; more like commonsense,” Rickel said. “I’d call it experiential knowledge,” said Pacheco with a wink. Excerpted from an article by Tom King published in MPA Materials Matter. Lab’s Pulsed Field Facility is one of a kindPowerful magnets—some of the most powerful in the world—are available to researchers visiting the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory’s Pulsed Field Facility (NHMFLPFF). The facility is the only pulsed, high-field user facility in the country. Scientists at the PFF use high magnetic fields as a basic tool to predictably manipulate an electron’s trajectory and its spins in a reversible and nondestructive manner. By studying materials under extreme magnetic field conditions, scientists can develop a better understanding of quantum mechanical principles—from the mechanisms that drive superconductivity at high temperatures, to fundamental magnetic-, electrical-, and structural properties that open the way to design of materials that will function in a specific way. The NHMFL Pulsed Field Facility features both destructive and nondestructive magnets and is the only place in the world where researchers can design experiments using the highest magnetic fields ever produced on a repetitive basis. Nondestructive pulsed-magnet designers must solve the problem of the exceedingly high stresses generated in the magnet during pulsing. These stresses typically reach 200,000 pounds per square inch, which is greater than the strength of most materials. As such, pulsed-magnet technology relies on state-of-the-art materials research. The 100 Tesla Multishot Magnet is the NHMFL’s flagship, and marks a major milestone in magnet design and materials engineering. As the world’s most powerful, pulsed nondestructive magnet, it is capable of delivering magnetic fields 2 million times more powerful than Earth’s magnetic field. Destructive pulsed magnets sidestep the strength-of-materials problem and are designed to self-destroy with every pulse. Because the intense magnetic field exists only as long as it takes a shockwave to propagate through the magnet, the pulse duration is limited to a few microseconds. The Pulsed Field Facility, one of three campuses of the NHMFL, also gives researchers access to assistance from some of the world’s leading experts in condensed-matter physics and pulsed-magnet science. All user support scientists are active researchers who collaborate with multiple users each year. Other Headlines
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