K. H. J. Buschow - Böcker

This volume is composed of topical review articles written by leading authorities in the field. As in previous volumes in the series, each article presents an extensive description in graphical as well as in tabular form, placing emphasis on the discussion of the experimental material in the framework of physics, chemistry and material science.Chapter one focuses on GMR in magnetic multilayers, spin valves, multilayers on grooved substrates and multilayered nanowires. Furthermore it comprises theoretical models and employs the experimental data to discuss the current understanding of GMR and the underlying physics.A key aspect of the study of the properties of thin magnetic films and multilayers is the relationship between the structural and magnetic properties of the material, which has become one of the most active areas of research in magnetism in recent years. NMR is a well-known technique that offers the possibility to obtain experimental information on atomic scale properties in systems with reduced dimensionality. Chapter two reviews the results obtained by NMR on the latter systems. Written in tutorial style it will be helpful to scientists familiar with the preparation and properties of thin magnetic films but having little knowledge of the NMR of ferromagnetic materials.Chapter three examines rare-earth compounds with 3d transition metals, in particular those that exhibit a magnetic instability of the 3d-subsystem. It focuses on such compounds in which the d-electron subsystem is neither non-magnetic, nor carries a stable magnetic moment.The last chapter is concerned with the promising technology of magnetic refrigeration which can be used in a broad range of applications. It is based on the magnetocaloric effect associated with the entropy change occurring when a magnetic material is isothermally subjected to a changing magnetic field and the temperature change when the field is changed adiabatically. The last decade has witnessed quite a strong development in magnetic cooling technology and research activities in this field have been extended to a variety of magnetocaloric materials, including amorphous alloys, nanocomposites, intermetallic compounds and perovskite type oxides. The many materials, their magnetocaloric efficiency as well as the physical principles behind it are reviewed in this final chapter.

Magnetoelectronics is a novel and rapidly developing field. This new field is frequently referred to as spin-electronics or spintronics. It includes spin-utilizing devices that need neither a magnetic field nor magnetic materials. In semiconductor devices, the spin of the carriers has only played a very modest role so far because well established semiconductor devices are non-magnetic and show only negligible effects of spin. Nanoscale thin films and multilayers, nanocrystalline magnetic materials, granular films, and amorphous alloys have attracted much attention in the last few decades, in the field of basic research as well as in the broader field of materials science. Such heterogeneous materials display uncommon magnetic properties that virtually do no occur in bulk materials. This is true, in particular with respect to surface (interface) magnetic anisotropy and surface (interface) magnetostrictive strains and giant magnetoresistance. The local atomic arrangement at the interface differs strongly from that in the bulk. The local symmetry is lowered, so that some interactions are changed or are missing altogether.The interface atoms may envisaged as forming a new phase and some properties characteristic of this phase may become predominant for the entire system.This becomes particularly evident in the case of interfacial magnetostriction which can lead to a decrease (almost to zero) or to an increase(over the bulk value) of the resulting magnetostriction of the nanoscale system.There are various forms of the interplay of magnetism and superconductivity, which can be divided into competition and coexistence phenomena. For instance, a strong competition is found in high-Tc cuprates. In these materials, depending on the doping rate, either Neel-type antiferromagnetism moments (e.g. from 4f-elements) with superconductivity is known to occur in systems where the concentration of these moments is sufficiently small or where they are antiferromagnetically ordered and only weakly coupled to the conduction electrons.During the years, intermetallic gadolinium compounds have adopted a special position in the study of 4f electron magnetism. The reason for this is the fact that the gadolinium moment consists only of a pure spin moment, orbital contributions to the moment being absent. As a consequence, gadolinium compounds have been regarded as ideal test benches for studying exchange interactions, free from complications due to crystal effects.Volume 14 of the Handbook of Magnetic Materials, as the preceding volumes, has a dual purpose. As a textbook it is intended to be of assistance to those who wish to be introduced to a given topic in the field of magnetism without the need to read the vast amount of literature published. As a work of reference it is intended for scientists active in magnetism research. To this dual purpose, volume 14 of the Handbook is composed of topical review articles written by leading authorities. In each of these articles an extensive description is given in graphical as well as tabular form, much emphasis being placed on the discussion of the experimental material in the framework of physics, chemistry and material science.

Volume 10 of the Handbook is composed of topical review articles written by leading authorities. In each of these articles an extensive description is given in graphical as well as in tabular form, much emphasis being placed on the discussion of the experimental material in the framework of physics, chemistry and materials science.

Of all the new superconducting materials investigated having a more than three times highter transition temperature, the cuprates are the most prominent. Although originally intended as novel superconducting compounds, these materials have opened a new field of magnetism that permits detailed studies of the propagation of magnetic order as a function of separation and crystallographic orientation as well as studies of the interplay of strain and magnetic properties. Chapter one presents a detailed account of acheivements in this field.

Further chapters report on the progress being made in research areas that have been dealt with in previous volumes of the Handbook. These include the group of soft magnetic materials in which supplementary results dealing with nanocrystalline alloys are highlighted; the magnetic properties of intermetallic compounds in which rare earth elements are combined with nonmagnetic elements; progress in the development in hard magnetic materials, with the emphasis on novel developments in the manufacturing routes and the physical principles on which these new developments are based.

Volume 11 of this prestigious series, as the preceding volumes, has a dual purpose. As a textbook it is intended to be of assistance to those who wish to be introduced to a given topic in the field of magnetism without the need to read the vast amount of literature published. As a work of reference it is intended for scientists active in magnetism research. In keeping with this dual purpose, Volume 11 of the Handbook is composed of topical review articles written by leading authorities. In each of these articles an extensive description is given in graphical as well as in tabular form, much emphasis being placed on the discussion of the experimental material in the framework of physics, chemistry and materials science.

Chapter one focuses on the growing interest in intermetallic compounds based on uranium. Recent research activities have finally led to the crystallisation of new concepts in actinide magnetism which, together with the large amount of experimental work are reviewed in this chapter.

The last few decades have witnessed quite an extraordinary development in magnetic recording technology. In the near future magnetic recording technology will have an enormous growth potential, one of it's main aims being the further reduction in the peripheral device sizes while maintaining an increase in capacity. Chapter two deals with the magnetism and materials aspects of hard disk media which are the most prominent type of mass storage today, due to their low cost, high speed and relatively high storage capacity.

Magnets based on rare earth elements are unequalled with regard to coercivity and maximum energy production. Considerable progress has been made in the development of rare earth based permanent magnets which goes hand in hand with a better understanding of the physical properties and especially the magnetism of the underlying class of materials. Chapter three presents a survey of the physical principles involved with this technique and how these can be applied advantageously to the study of strongly ferromagnetic materials.

The final chapter is devoted to inelastic neutron scattering when applied to study the crystal field interaction in lanthanide compounds. Included in this review is a description of how this technique is complementary to various other modern and conventional techniques.