This book presents a phenomenological approach to the field of solid state magnetism. It surveys the various theories and discusses their applicability in different types of materials. The text will be valuable as a text for graduate courses in magnetism and magnetic materials.

Solid state magnetism is important and attempts to understand magnetic properties have led to an increasingly deep insight into the fundamental make up of solids. Both experimental and theoretical research into magnetism continue to be very active, yet there is still much ground to cover before there can be a full understanding. There is a strong interplay between the developments of materials science and of magnetism. Hundreds of new materials have been dis covered, often with previously unobserved and puzzling magnetic prop erties. A large and growing technology exists that is based on the magnetic properties of materials. Very many devices used in everyday life involve magnetism and new applications are being invented all the time. Under standing the fundamental background to the applications is vital to using and developing them. The aim of this book is to provide a simple, up-to-date introduction to the study of solid state magnetism, both intrinsic and technical. It is designed to meet the needs and interests of advanced undergraduate students reading physics; of postgraduates in physical and materials sciences and in engineering; and also those of the practising scientist specializing in another area who requires an introduction to magnetism.

This text book gives a comprehensive account of magnetism, one of the oldest yet most vibrant fields of physics. It spans the historical development, the physical foundations and the continuing research underlying the subject. The book covers both the classical and quantum mechanical aspects of magnetism and novel experimental techniques. Perhaps uniquely, it discusses spin transport and magnetization dynamics phenomena associated with atomically and spin engineered nano-structures against the backdrop of spintronics and magnetic storage and memory applications. The book is for students, and serves as a reference for scientists in academia and research laboratories.

The field of highly frustrated magnetism has developed considerably and expanded over the last 15 years. Issuing from canonical geometric frustration of interactions, it now extends over other aspects with many degrees of freedom such as magneto-elastic couplings, orbital degrees of freedom, dilution effects, and electron doping. Its is thus shown here that the concept of frustration impacts on many other fields in physics than magnetism. This book represents a state-of-the-art review aimed at a broad audience with tutorial chapters and more topical ones, encompassing solid-state chemistry, experimental and theoretical physics.

This book describes theoretical aspects of the metallic magnetism from metals to disordered alloys to amorphous alloys both at the ground state and at finite temperatures. The book gives an introduction to the metallic magnetism, and treats effects of electron correlations on magnetism, spin fluctuations in metallic magnetism, formation of complex magnetic structures, a variety of magnetism due to configurational disorder in alloys as well as a new magnetism caused by the structural disorder in amorphous alloys, especially the itinerant-electron spin glasses. The readers will find that all these topics can be understood systematically by means of the spin-fluctuation theories based on the functional integral method.

An understanding of the quantum mechanical nature of magnetism has led to the development of new magnetic materials which are used as permanent magnets, sensors, and information storage. Behind these practical applications lie a range of fundamental ideas, including symmetry breaking, order parameters, excitations, frustration, and reduced dimensionality. This superb new textbook presents a logical account of these ideas, staring from basic concepts in electromagnetsim and quantum mechanics. It outlines the origin of magnetic moments in atoms and how these moments can be affected by their local environment inside a crystal. The different types of interactions which can be present between magnetic moments are described. The final chapters of the book are devoted to the magnetic properties of metals, and to the complex behaviour which can occur when competing magnetic interactions are present and/or the system has a reduced dimensionality. Throughout the text, the theorectical principles are applied to real systems. There is substantial discussion of experimental techniques and current reserach topics. The book is copiously illustrated and contains detailed appendices which cover the fundamental principles.