Drift-Free Integration in Inductive Magnetic Field Measurements Achieved by Kalman Filtering

Sensing coils are inductive sensors commonly used to measure magnetic fields, such as those generated by electromagnets used in many kinds of industrial and scientific applications. Inductive sensors rely on integrating the output voltage at the coil’s terminals in order to obtain flux linkage, which may suffer from the magnification of low-frequency noise resulting in a drifting integrated signal. This article presents a method for the cancellation of integrator drift. The method is based on a first-order linear Kalman filter combining the data from the coil and a second sensor. Two case studies are presented. In the first one, the second sensor is a Hall probe, which senses the magnetic field directly. In a second case study, the magnet’s excitation current was used instead to provide a first-order approximation of the field. Experimental tests show that both approaches can reduce the measured field drift by three orders of magnitude. The Hall probe option guarantees, in addition, one order of magnitude better absolute accuracy than by using the excitation current.

Imaging of Strong Nanoscale Vortex Pinning in GdBaCuO High-Temperature Superconducting Tapes

The high critical current density of second-generation high-temperature superconducting (2G-HTS) tapes is the result of the systematic optimisation of the pinning landscape for superconducting vortices through careful engineering of the size and density of defects and non-superconducting second phases. Here, we use scanning Hall probe microscopy to conduct a vortex-resolved study of commercial GdBaCuO tapes in low fields for the first time and complement this work with “local” magnetisation and transport measurements. Magnetic imaging reveals highly disordered vortex patterns reflecting the presence of strong pinning from a dense distribution of nanoscale Gd2O3 second-phase inclusions in the superconducting film. However, we find that the measured vortex profiles are unexpectedly broad, with full-width-half-maxima typically of 6 μm, and exhibit almost no temperature dependence in the range 10–85 K. Since the lateral displacements of pinned vortex cores are not expected to exceed the superconducting layer thickness, this suggests that the observed broadening is caused by the disruption of the circulating supercurrents due to the high density of nanoscale pinning sites. Deviations of our local magnetisation data from an accepted 2D Bean critical state model also indicate that critical state profiles relax quite rapidly by flux creep. Our measurements provide important information about the role second-phase defects play in enhancing the critical current in these tapes and demonstrate the power of magnetic imaging as a complementary tool in the optimisation of vortex pinning phenomena in 2G-HTS tapes.

Harmonic Coil Magnetic Measurement System for HESR Magnets − a Mathematical Model and Design

This paper presents the constructive design of the Sextupole, Horizontal Steerer and Vertical Steerer electromagnets manufactured by ICPE-CA for HESR storage ring from FAIR Project which will be set-up in Darmstadt Germany. Also, in this paper is presented the current method and system with Hall probe the one that we have performed the magnetic measurements so far by now. Regarding that this method takes a lot of time to perform the magnetic measurements, meanwhile we have developed a system with harmonic coils, which we intend to use in the further magnetic measurements. Also, in this paper is presented the method of magnetic measurements with harmonic coil also the development of mathematical model for this measurement method. To validate the mathematical model of magnetic measurements using harmonic coils we have made a simulation and we have compared with the measurements performed with Hall probe on the Sextupole electromagnet.

Granular Hall Sensors for Scanning Probe Microscopy

Scanning Hall probe microscopy is attractive for minimally invasive characterization of magnetic thin films and nanostructures by measurement of the emanating magnetic stray field. Established sensor probes operating at room temperature employ highly miniaturized spin-valve elements or semimetals, such as Bi. As the sensor layer structures are fabricated by patterning of planar thin films, their adaption to custom-made sensor probe geometries is highly challenging or impossible. Here we show how nanogranular ferromagnetic Hall devices fabricated by the direct-write method of focused electron beam induced deposition (FEBID) can be tailor-made for any given probe geometry. Furthermore, we demonstrate how the magnetic stray field sensitivity can be optimized in situ directly after direct-write nanofabrication of the sensor element. First proof-of-principle results on the use of this novel scanning Hall sensor are shown.

Traceably calibrated scanning Hall probe microscopy at room temperature

Fabrication, characterization and comparison of gold and graphene micro- and nanoscale Hall sensors for room temperature scanning magnetic field microscopy applications are presented. The Hall sensors with active areas from 5 µm down to 50 nm were fabricated by electron-beam lithography. The calibration of the Hall sensors in an external magnetic field revealed a sensitivity of 3.2 mV A−1 T−1 ± 0.3 % for gold and 1615 V A−1 T−1 ± 0.5 % for graphene at room temperature. The gold sensors were fabricated on silicon nitride cantilever chips suitable for integration into commercial scanning probe microscopes, allowing scanning Hall microscopy (SHM) under ambient conditions and controlled sensor–sample distance. The height-dependent stray field distribution of a magnetic scale was characterized using a 5 µm gold Hall sensor. The uncertainty of the entire Hall-sensor-based scanning and data acquisition process was analyzed, allowing traceably calibrated SHM measurements. The measurement results show good agreement with numerical simulations within the uncertainty budget.

Calibration and Characterization of a Reduced Form-Factor High Accuracy Three-Axis Teslameter

A new reduced form-factor three axes digital teslameter, based on the spinning current technique, has been developed. This instrument will be used to characterize the SwissFEL insertion devices at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) for the ATHOS soft X-ray beamline. A detailed and standardized calibration procedure is critical to optimize the performance of this precision instrument. This paper presents the measurement techniques used for the corrective improvements implemented through non-linearity, temperature offset, temperature sensitivity compensation of the Hall probe and electronics temperature compensation. A detailed quantitative analysis of the reduction in errors on the application of each step of the calibration is presented. The percentage peak error reduction attained through calibration of the instrument for reference fields in the range of ±2 T is registered to drop from 1.94% down to 0.02%.