Technique for high axial shielding factor performance of large-scale, thin, open-ended, cylindrical Metglas magnetic shields

Metglas 2705M is a low-cost commercially available, high-permeability cobalt-based magnetic alloy, provided as a 5.08-cm wide and 20.3-μm thick ribbon foil. We present an optimized construction technique for single-shell, large-scale (human-size), thin, open-ended cylindrical Metglas magnetic shields. The measured dc axial and transverse magnetic shielding factors of our 0.61-m diameter and 1.83-m long shields in the Earth's magnetic field were 267 and 1500, for material thicknesses of only 122 μm (i.e., 6 foil layers). The axial shielding performance of our single-shell Metglas magnetic shields, obtained without the use of magnetic shaking techniques, is comparable to the performance of significantly thicker, multiple-shell, open-ended Metglas magnetic shields in comparable-magnitude, low-frequency applied external fields reported previously in the literature.