The physics of ferromagnetism. (Q655149)

The book by T. Miyazaki and H. Jin is, first of all, an excellent reference book covering the basic physics of ferromagnetism as well as recent progress in the field of advanced ferromagnetic materials. Almost no introductory material (thus it cannot be recommended to those who are just beginning to study magnetism), but, on the other hand, it contains necessary mathematical prerequisites and presents all the basic facts in a concise way. The book consists of three parts divided into fourteen chapters. Part I consisting of eight chapters introduces fundamental magnetic phenomena and theories. Chapter 1 reviews the basic macroscopic magnetism, i.e., basic magnetic laws and magnetic quantities; static magnetic fields and magnetic circuit; magnetic energy; thermodynamics for magnetic media; Hamiltonian of a charged particle. The other chapters give a concise description of magnetism of atoms and solids; exchange interactions; magnetic anisotropy (including magnetocrystalline and shape anisotropy, induced and random anisotropy); magnetorestriction effects (for instance, small changes in size and volume which accompanies the magnetization); the theory of magnetic domain (magnetostatic energies of strip and chessboard domain structures; magnetic domain wall and magnetic domain structure); micromagnetism (with numerical calculations of magnetization for nanocrystalline NdFeB permanent magnets). Part II of the book describes soft (Chapter 9) and hard (Chapter 10) magnetic materials, including a survey of permanent magnets and their properties. Part III discusses spintronics, which, as a research field, is new compared with the phenomena discussed in Parts I and II. Chapter 11 reviews the history of the research on the magnetoresistance effect and gives its classification. Particularly, experiments on anisotropic magnetoresistance are explained, and it is shown how the measurements of magnetoresistance and magnetization curves can be useful in investigating the magnetization states. The giant magnetoresistance effect is also described in this chapter. Chapter 12 treats the tunnel magnetoresistance effect. The trigger of a magnesium oxide (MgO) barrier tunnel junction is described and typical data are introduced. Chapter 13 reviews the MRAM (magnetic random access memory) focusing on the important developments in this field, particularly, spin transfer torque switching. Finally, Chapter 14 focuses on accompanying technologies for the development of spintronics devices.