Antimagnets: controlling magnetic fields with superconductor–metamaterial hybrids

TLDR

Magnetism is crucial across many technologies, yet switching off a material’s magnetic interaction without altering external fields remains elusive. The study introduces the antimagnet, a design that conceals a volume’s magnetic response from the exterior while leaving external fields unchanged, analogous to cloaking proposals. The antimagnet is realized using only superconductors and isotropic magnetic materials, avoiding the extreme properties required by previous cloaking devices. Potential applications include MRI enhancement and stealth by reducing magnetic signatures of vessels or aircraft.

Abstract

Magnetism is very important in science and technology, from magnetic recording to energy generation to trapping cold atoms. Physicists have managed to master magnetism - to create and manipulate magnetic fields- almost at will. Surprisingly, there is at least one property which until now has been elusive: how to 'switch off' the magnetic interaction of a magnetic material with existing magnetic fields without modifying them. Here we introduce the antimagnet, a design to conceal the magnetic response of a given volume from its exterior, without altering the external magnetic fields, somehow analogous to the recent theoretical proposals for cloaking electromagnetic waves with metamaterials. However, different from these devices requiring extreme material properties, our device is feasible and needs only two kinds of available materials: superconductors and isotropic magnetic materials. Antimagnets may have applications in magnetic-based medical techniques such as MRI or in reducing the magnetic signature of vessels or planes.