The Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) said in Beijing on Thursday that Chinese and Belgian scientists are cooperating in developing computer software for designing a high-pulsed magnetic field facility in China.

The Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, and Belgium's University of Leuven are working on the software. The patent is shared by both Chinese and Belgian scientists.

The software has been used for designing a big European-funded high-pulsed magnetic field experimental facility, or DeNUF, the ministry said on its website (www.most.gov.cn).

In high magnetic fields research, scientists attempted to study matter at the molecular level. Improvement in understanding structures and functions of materials in magnetic fields had led to a range of enhanced modern technologies, including computers, motors, plastics, high-speed trains, high-temperature superconductors and magnetic resonance imaging, experts said.

Many developed countries had set up high-pulsed magnetic fields laboratories for finding new features of existing materials or making new materials.

One of the leading laboratories in the field was the U.S. Department of Energy lab at Los Alamos, New Mexico. It could produce the world's most powerful-pulsed electromagnets, or 60 teslas (600,000 gauss) in magnetic measurement.

In 2003, the Ministry of Education endorsed funds to build China's first high-pulsed magnetic fields facility at the Wuhan-based university. Current research at the lab was sponsored by both the Chinese and Belgian governments, the website said.

The Earth's magnetic field was only one-quarter or a half gauss, depending on where people were in the world. The 60 tesla gauss magnet could deliver more than one times the magnetic field found naturally on Earth.

Pan Yuan, a principal investigator for the Chinese program, said within five years his team expected to increase the long-pulsed fields from 50 to 80 teslas (one million gauss).

High stress and abnormal heating have caused problems within powerful magnets. Thus, wise designing of a magnetic fields facility was vitally important, Pan said.

With the powerful homegrown facility, Pan and his team have studied the electron state of metals with heavy electron compounds. This was believed to be very useful for understanding the super conducting traits of metal.