As Lu Zhou mentioned at the conference of the Institute of Computational Materials, if you want to overcome the problem of controlled nuclear fusion, superconducting materials have always been a hurdle that cannot be bypassed.

And technological breakthroughs alone are not enough, if they cannot be realized in engineering, no matter how great a miracle can only stay in the laboratory.

Taking SG-1 material as an example, as a major breakthrough in the field of superconductivity, it has shown considerable prospects in the application field.

However, neither at home nor abroad, there is no experience in the production of carbon-based superconducting materials, let alone the application of them to engineering.

Therefore, for Lu Zhou, the problems to be overcome now are not only in the academic field that he is good at, but also the problems that have to be solved from outside the academic field.

But fortunately, he can share this part of the work with others......

Laboratory of the Institute of Computational Materials.

Standing in front of Lu Zhou at this moment is Cao Daxing, the chief engineer from Baer Group.

As a subsidiary of China Aviation Industry Group and a leading enterprise in the field of superconducting materials in China, Baoer Group has cooperated with research institutes such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences for many times and participated in major scientific research projects. As the chief engineer of the group, he has also participated in most of these projects.

Perhaps the most prominent example is the Beijing Positron Collider (BESlll) project.

It's hard to say what the future holds, but for now, BESlll superconducting magnets still hold the record of the largest single superconducting magnet in China.

In addition, this company can also be seen in most of the contractors of several tokamak superconducting magnets in China, including EAST.

After consulting Academician Pan, Lu Zhou immediately contacted the company and issued an invitation for cooperative research and development.

After learning that the unit that sent it the intention of cooperative research and development was Jinling Institute of Computational Materials, Baosheng Group sent its own group chief engineer without saying a word, and put the priority of this project to the maximum.

Even putting aside the halo of the Nobel Prize and Lu Zhou's status in the materials science community, the $1 billion national large-scale scientific research project is definitely a high-quality project.

However, after listening to Lu Zhou's request, Cao Gong soon realized that things were not so simple.

"50T superconducting magnets, you plan to use them on stellarstellarsers, I'm afraid it's not that easy."

If you want to get a stronger electromagnetic field, junior high school students probably know what to do, and they only need to increase the number of turns of the energized spiroid.

However, having said that, when the magnetic field exceeds the order of 10T, it is better to achieve it in engineering than to ascend to the sky.

Lu Zhou: "Traditional materials are difficult to achieve, what if new materials are used? ”

Cao Gong's eyebrows raised: "You mean SG-1?" ”

Although he is not an academic person, since he is engaged in superconducting magnet engineering, he is still following up on the latest research progress in the field of materials science.

In particular, the SG-1 was displayed at the MRS Autumn Meeting, and even though he had not read the relevant papers or been to the site, he had heard of its miraculous performance.

Lu Zhou nodded: "That's right, in fact, SG-1 is exactly what I participated in researching." ”

Hearing Lu Zhou's words, Cao Gong's face was surprised, but he soon returned to normal.

He had heard that the results of the study were from the Frick Chemistry Laboratory in Princeton, and given that Lu Zhou was a professor at Princeton, it was not surprising that he was involved in this research.

After thinking for a moment, Cao Gong cautiously asked, "Is there a sample of SG-1 material here?" ”

Lu Zhou: "Not only samples, but all kinds of experimental data can be seen here, come with me." ”

After that, Lu Zhou took Cao Dangwei to another laboratory, and at the same time motioned to Qian Zhongming, who was waiting in front of the computer, to retrieve various experimental data on SG-1 materials.

After reading the data and charts displayed on the computer screen with some difficulty, the worker thought for a long time with a frown on his brow before finally speaking.

"To be honest, the idea of using carbon-based materials to create superconducting magnetic rails is the first time I've heard of it in so many years."

Lu Zhou smiled: "Isn't science trying to try?" ”

"That's true, but we're a business, and even if what you're saying sounds interesting, we have to think about the actual situation." Xiao Gong rubbed his chin and stared at the curve graph about the resistivity of materials in the superconducting state, the energizing time and the current for a long time, and finally an interested look appeared in his eyes, "...... It seems feasible in theory, but at the price of graphene, it would be a lot of money to build such a magnet the size of the BESlll project. ”

Lu Zhou: "There is no need to consider the cost, even if it costs more than a billion, as long as the DEMO demonstration reactor can be built, it is worth it." ”

One billion dollars is just the first investment, and as long as he can come up with good enough phased results, I believe that many people will be willing to pay for his research.

"Since I don't think about the cost, I think I can give it a try," Cao Gong paused and asked cautiously, "Can I bring a few grams of samples back to study?" ”

Lu Zhou smiled and said happily, "Of course you can, but the experimental data in the computer is not good, it involves some information that has not yet been made public, so I can only trouble you to look at it here." ”

Cao Gong nodded in understanding: "I understand." ”

After sending off the people on the corporate side, Lu Zhou found Yang Xu, the director of the Institute of Computational Materials.

"After the Chinese New Year, I plan to go to Germany."

Yang Xu: "Germany? ”

"It's mainly for the sake of the stellarman," Lu Zhou nodded, and continued, "Just by the way, I plan to purchase a batch of new instruments, with a budget of about 100 million US dollars, and I need you to make a list and write down all the equipment you need." ”

In the next year, he will expand the scale of the institute, and the relevant hardware will have to keep up.

As soon as he heard that it was the purchase of equipment, Yang Xu's face suddenly revealed. smiled, "That's easy to say, just if we want to do research on superconducting materials, let's start with two transmission electron microscopes." ”

Although there is already one in the institute, getting two more means that the same experiment can test two more sets of data at the same time.

Especially for the transmission electron microscope, which is an artifact of materials science, if the budget is enough, naturally no one will be too much.

Lu Zhou agreed without blinking his eyes: "Write it down in the list and give it to me together." ”

After a pause, he continued.

"In addition, I plan to recruit a large number of researchers, probably more than two hundred. I will ask Star Technology to contact the relevant headhunting companies, and as for the selection of talents, I will leave it to you. ”

Yang Xu nodded: "Don't worry about this, I will strictly control it." By the way, are there any requirements for the threshold? ”

After thinking about it, Lu Zhou said.

"At least it has to be a postdoc."