HEFEI — Chinese scientists announced on Nov 14 they have created a world-class steady-state magnetic field, whose intensity reached 400,000 gauss, or 40 tesla, second only to that of the United States.

After eight years of research, the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Hefei institute of physical science has built the hybrid magnet composed of a 30-tesla magnet nested in a 10-tesla superconducting magnet.

Developed by the institute’s magnet science and technology center in Hefei, capital of east China’s Anhui province, the device generated a 40-tesla steady-state magnetic field on Nov 13.

It is a significant milestone for China’s high field magnet technology, said the institute.

Currently, a US steady-state magnet device can generate a 45 tesla field, the world’s strongest.