Physics Research International

Volume 2012 (2012), Article ID 385396, 2 pages

doi:10.1155/2012/385396

Editorial

Advanced Magnetic Materials

Arcady Zhukov,¹ Mitsuteru Inoue,² Manh-Huong Phan,³ and Vladimir Shavrov⁴

¹Departamento de Física de Materiales, Universidad del País Vasco, UPV/EHU, 20018 San Sebastián, Spain and IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, 48011 Bilbao, Spain

²Department of Electrical and Electronic Information Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology, -1 Hibarigaoka, Toyohashi 441-8580, Japan

³Department of Physics, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, USA

⁴Institute of Radioengineering and Electronics, Russian Academy of Sciences, 125009 Moscow, Russia

Received 11 March 2012; Accepted 11 March 2012

Copyright © 2012 Arcady Zhukov et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

This special issue is inspired by a rapidly growing interest in the research of magnetism and magnetic materials, discoveries of novel magnetic materials, and recent progress in the development of functional materials with improved magnetic and magnetotransport properties. The research is demanded by the last advances in technology and engineering and greatly associated with the development of advanced magnetic materials with improved magnetic and magnetotransport properties. Certain industrial sectors, such as magnetic sensors, microelectronics, security, and energy-efficient magnetic refrigerators, demand cost-effective materials with reduced dimensionality and desirable magnetic properties (i.e., enhanced magnetic softness, giant magnetic field sensitivity, large magnetocaloric effect, large shape memory effect, etc.). In particular, the miniaturization of modern magnetoelectronic devices tends to stimulate a rapid development of nanoscale magnetic materials. However, the development of soft magnetic materials in different forms of ribbons, wires, microwires, and multilayered thin films still continues to attract significant attention from the scientific community, as the discovery of the so-called giant magnetoimpedance effect in these materials makes them very attractive for a wide range of high-performance sensor applications ranging from engineering, industry, to biomedicine. In another research area, the development of advanced magnetocaloric materials for advanced magnetic refrigeration technology has also generated growing interest among scientists. The majority of magnetic refrigeration is to develop new materials that are cost effective and possess high cooling efficiencies (i.e., large magnetocaloric effect over a wide temperature range). In all cases, a comprehensive understanding of the processing-structure-property relationship in the fabricated materials is of critical importance. Consequently, great efforts have been (and are being) focused on systematic theoretical and experimental studies with the overall aim of advancing our current knowledge of the origins of the material properties related to the existence of some special arrangements at the nanometric scale and/or to the prevision of novel unusual macroscopic properties.

This special issue aims to provide most up-to-date information about recent developments in magnetic materials for advanced technologies. It covers a wide range of experimental and theoretical works highlighting the following main topics:

(i)soft magnetic materials and sensor applications,(ii)magnetocaloric materials and magnetic refrigeration,(iii)magnetic shape alloys and related applications,(iv)amorphous and nanocrystalline magnetic materials and applications,(v)metamagnetism,(vi)ferrites,(vii)electrodynamics of heterogeneous media.

We hope this issue will stimulate further interest in magnetic materials research.

Acknowledgment

Last but not least, we would like to acknowledge all the editorial members, contributed authors and dedicated referees for their invaluable time, great contributions and assistance to this volume. Without such efforts we would not be able to accomplish and bring this special issue to the interested readers.

Arcady Zhukov

Mitsuteru Inoue

Manh-Huong Phan

Vladimir Shavrov