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We regularly hear about magnets breaking the highest flux density records produced by laboratories, obviously the magnetization field intensity is generally not stated, so are there any materials that have low reluctance ( similar to silicon steel at 0.6-1T) at such high flux densities as most ferromagnetic materials would saturate well before this limit is reached ?

Important Note: From the first answer, it seems people are not aware of actual values, amorphous ferrite alloys, powder cores, silicon steel etc all saturate at a maximum of 1.6 T, other than Permendur(2.4 T) all magnetic materials currently in use saturate at 1.6 T or less. And I have googled this for quite some time to no result, that is why I asked in the first place.

Edit: This edit to the question is purely to bump up the question on the unanswered charts.

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  • $\begingroup$ Does free space count as a material? $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 15, 2017 at 10:43
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    $\begingroup$ Sorry for late response, obviously not, low reluctance is required for electrical applications. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 15, 2017 at 15:32
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    $\begingroup$ At cryogenic temperatures, gadolinium is a bit higher than iron. $\endgroup$
    – user137289
    Commented Oct 15, 2017 at 20:03
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks, any other examples, I read up on a paper investigating it's behaviour, still reading that. Also it would be better to have more examples. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 17, 2017 at 11:51

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Let's estimate the saturation magnetic field for a typical metal.

Suppose that permanently-magnetized iron has one freely-orientable electron for every atom. (Reality is more complicated than this; it's a toy model.) The magnetic moment of each electron is roughly $\mu_B = 9.3\times10^{-24}\rm\,J/T \approx 10^{-23}\rm\,J/T$. Given iron's density around $8\rm\,g/cm^3$ and atomic weight $56\rm\,g/mol$, each atom occupies a volume of about $12\times10^{-30}\rm\,m^3$.

The magnetic dipole moment is the volume integral of the magnetization, $$ \mathbf m = \int \mathbf M \,\mathrm dV $$ and the magnetization $\bf M$ is proportional to the residual magnetic field from the relation $$ \mathbf B = \mu_0(\mathbf M + \mathbf H). $$

So we can (in a hand-waving way) predict the saturation field of our iron as \begin{align} \mathbf B &= \frac{\mu_0 \mathbf m_\text{electron}}{V_\text{atom}} \\ &= 4\pi\times10^{-7}\frac{\rm H}{\rm m} \cdot \frac{10^{-23}\rm\,A\,m^2 }{12\times10^{-30}\rm\,m^3} \\ &\approx 1\,\rm T \end{align} So in this toy model, a perfect crystal of completely-magnetized iron would have a residual field of about one tesla.

You can imagine modifying the model a bit to boost this maximum. Iron has a partially-filled $d$-shell with two unpaired electrons, which would naively double this maximum field to $2\rm\,T$. And you can make a handwaving argument about g-factors and orbital angular momentum: since each valence electron has $L=2$ units of orbital angular momentum, you might be able to construct iron atoms where there are more $d$-shell electrons orbiting clockwise than counterclockwise. However that doesn't appear to be how real iron works --- my reading suggests that the various $d$-orbitals aren't very well-localized in the isotropic iron crystal, but I'm not enough of a materials person to articulate why.

If you used a lanthanide or actinide metal, where the valence electrons are in the $f$-shell rather than the $d$-shell, you could have additional unpaired electrons, and orbital angular momentum could be more important. And the two strongest available magnet alloys are made with neodymium and samarium. However the actual neodymium alloy, $\rm Nd_2 Fe_{14} B_2$, is still mostly iron. So as an order-of-magnitude guess, our maximum --- something like $2\rm\,T$ remnant field, based on approximately two spin-oriented electrons per atom --- is still appropriate.

A material with a remnant magnetization of $10\rm\,T$ isn't crazy, but it would have a very different electronic structure than the magnetic materials that we have now.

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enter image description here

There is a practical limit for materials, but if one has no budget limit with high power, cryogenic cooling extreme high T flux density cores passing > 10 T do exist.

This query is a duplicate if you know how to search and you will find exotic ferrites with hard/soft magnetic particles with low permeability and high B field saturation limits.

Here are some examples of >= 10T

https://hypertextbook.com/facts/2000/AnnaWoo.shtml

which use cryogenics and high power to achieve this.

Otherwise on the RF side using 900 MHz MRI's @ 7T has been around for about 15 yrs , a portable one developed by a colleague of mine in Winnipeg at NRC/Imris.

11 T MRI's are in R&D or released already.

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    $\begingroup$ I think the materials you are referencing saturate at 1.35 T not 10T, I have searched on the internet for quite some time to no result, otherwise I wouldn't ask. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 15, 2017 at 9:11
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    $\begingroup$ I believe you might have made a conversion mistake from gauss to tesla. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 15, 2017 at 9:12
  • $\begingroup$ air that is what you want to look for $\endgroup$
    – JonRB
    Commented Oct 15, 2017 at 10:46
  • $\begingroup$ Nope, need lower reluctance than air, any materials exist for that? $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 15, 2017 at 15:33
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    $\begingroup$ Also, someone please downvote this answer as it leads people to believe this is already answered and thus not worth their time, I dont have enough reputation to downvote, also sorry for downvoting. $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 15, 2017 at 15:34

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