Certain magnetic materials have optical properties that make them attractive for a wide variety of applications such as optical switches. This book describes the physics of one class of such magnetooptic materials, the insulating antiferromagnets. The authors summarize recent results concerning the structure, optical properties, spectroscopy, and magnetooptical properties of these materials. In particular, they consider magnetic phase transitions, symmetry effects, the linear magnetooptical effect, magnons, spectroscopic study of spin waves, photoinduced magnetic effects, and the effects of impurities.

This book considers the different aspects of materials with specific magnetic, electric and elastic properties. They are considered in view of potential application in the design and manufacturing of smart materials. Modern smart materials play a key role at investigations in interdisciplinary materials sciences and are serving to forge new links between basic and applied research. Progress is reported in the fabrication and understanding of in-situ formation and characterization of solid state structures with specified properties.