The laboratory is on the university’s Katahira Campus surrounded by lush trees, and building with a historic atmosphere.

Inside, a model of the laboratory’s hybrid magnet comes into view first. Beside it is a set instructions full of unfamiliar words, a bit intimidating.
Welcoming me were Professor Satoshi Awaji, Assistant Professor Kohki Takahashi, Assistant Professor Tatsunori Okada and grad student Ryo Otsubo. They showed me around the laboratory.

Awaji: “This is one of the few open research facilities in the world, and the only one in Japan, equipped with more than 15 high-Tc based field magnets …. Among many experiments, the researchers here measure changes in the electrical resistance of a given material when it is cooled and placed in a magnetic field.”

In the picture is a 25-tesla cryogen-free superconducting magnet, which can produce fields up to roughly 500,000 times the force of geomagnetism. (The tesla is a unit of magnetic force; 0.5 gauss = 0.05 millitesla.)
A Kito crane helps place the container of the material to be measured and liquid helium through a 52mm port into the magnetic field.

Awaji: “The application of magnetic force carries potential for us to discover previously unknown physical phenomena. I have no doubt that in the future we will contribute to the technological progress of products and materials in many fields.”
This is truly a quest into an unknown world.