Antoni Planes – författare

This book provides the state-of-the art of the present understanding of avalanche phenomena in both functional materials and geophysics. The main emphasis of the book is analyzing these apparently different problems within the common perspective of out-of-equilibrium phenomena displaying spatial and temporal complexity that occur in a broad range of scales. Many systems, when subjected to an external force, respond intermittently in the form of avalanches that often span over a wide range of sizes, energies and durations. This is often related to a class of critical behavior characterized by the absence of characteristic scales. Typical examples are magnetization processes, plastic deformation and failure occuring in functional materials. These phenomena share many similarities with seismicity arising from the earth crust failure due to stresses that originate from plate tectonics.

Magnetism and Structure in Functional Materials addresses three distinct but related topics: (i) magnetoelastic materials such as magnetic martensites and magnetic shape memory alloys, (ii) the magnetocaloric effect related to magnetostructural transitions, and (iii) colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) and related manganites. The goal is to identify common underlying principles in these classes of materials that are relevant for optimizing various functionalities. The emergence of apparently different magnetic/structural phenomena in disparate classes of materials clearly points to a need for common concepts in order to achieve a broader understanding of the interplay between magnetism and structure in this general class of new functional materials exhibiting ever more complex microstructure and function. The topic is interdisciplinary in nature and the contributors correspondingly include physicists, materials scientists and engineers. Likewise the book will appeal to scientists from all these areas.

A highly coveted objective of modern materials science is to optimize multiple coupled functionalities in the same single phase material and control the cross-response via multiple external fields. One important example of such multi-functionality are multiferroic materials where two or more ferroic properties are intrinsically coupled. They include, among others, the magneto-electric and magneto-structural materials, which are well understood at the nano- and continuum length (and time) scales. The next emerging frontier is to connect these two limiting scales by probing the mesoscale physics of these materials.

This book not only attempts to provide this connection but also presents the state-of-the art of the present understanding and potential applications of many related complex multifunctional materials. The main emphasis is on the multiscale bridging of their properties with the aim to discover novel properties and applications in the context of materials by design. This interdisciplinary book serves both graduate students and expert researchers alike.