Halbach array

A Halbach array (German: [ˈhalbax]) is a special arrangement of permanent <a href="/facts/Magnet/vvrg6VSk">magnets</a> that augments the magnetic field on one side of the array while cancelling the field to near zero on the other side. This is achieved by having a spatially rotating pattern of magnetisation.
The rotating pattern of permanent magnets (on the front face; on the left, up, right, down) can be continued indefinitely and have the same effect. The effect of this arrangement is roughly similar to many horseshoe magnets placed adjacent to each other, with similar poles touching.
This magnetic orientation process replicates that applied by a magnetic recording tape head to the magnetic tape coating during the recording process. The principle was further described by James (Jim) M. Winey of <a href="/facts/Magnepan/Vw6j1xHk">Magnepan</a> in 1970, for the ideal case of continuously rotating magnetization, induced by a one-sided stripe-shaped coil.
The effect was also discovered by <a href="/facts/John_C._Mallinson/K1kEEAhE">John C. Mallinson</a> in 1973, and these "one-sided flux" structures were initially described by him as a "curiosity", although at the time he recognized from this discovery the potential for significant improvements in <a href="/facts/Magnetic_tape/wj6IDTR1">magnetic tape</a> technology.
Physicist <a href="/facts/Klaus_Halbach/879T08QF">Klaus Halbach</a>, while at the <a href="/facts/Lawrence_Berkeley_National_Laboratory/tvjPSwC9">Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory</a> during the 1980s, independently invented the Halbach array to focus particle accelerator beams.

Halbach array open-in-new

Halbach array