This unified overview of recent progress in a growing, multi-disciplinary field places special emphasis on the industrial applications of magnetic multilayered materials. The text describes a wide range of physical aspects, together with experimental and theoretical methods.

This is one of the first application-orientated books on the subject. The main topics are magnetic sensors with high resolutions and magnetic read heads with high sensitivities, required for hard-disk drives with recording densities of several gigabytes. Another important subject is novel magnetic random-access memory (MRAM) with non-volatile non-destructive and radiation-hard characteristics.

Since the discovery of the giant magnetoresistance (GMR) effect in 1988, spintronics has been presented as a new technology paradigm, awarded by the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2007. Initially used in read heads of hard disk drives, and while disputing a piece of the market to the flash memories, GMR devices have broadened their range of usage by growing towards magnetic field sensing applications in a huge range of scenarios. Potential applications at the time of the discovery have become real in the last two decades. Definitively, GMR was born to stand. In this sense, selected successful approaches of GMR based sensors in different applications: space, automotive, microelectronics, biotechnology ... are collected in the present book. While keeping a practical orientation, the fundamentals as well as the current trends and challenges of this technology are also analyzed. In this sense, state of the art contributions from academy and industry can be found through the contents. This book can be used by starting researchers, postgraduate students and multidisciplinary scientists in order to have a reference text in this topical fascinating field.

This book focuses on an increasingly important area of materials science and technology, namely, the fabrication and properties of artificial materials where slabs of magnetized materials are sandwiched between slabs of nonmagnetized materials. It includes reviews by experts on the theory and descriptions of the various experimental techniques such as those using nuclear or electron spin probes, as well as optical, X-ray or neutron probes. It also reviews potential applications such as the giant magnetoresistance, and one specialized preparation technique, the electrodeposition. The various chapters are tutorial in nature, making the subject accessible to nonspecialists, as well as useful to researchers in the field.

The concise and accessible chapters of Nanomagnetism and Spintronics, Second Edition, cover the most recent research in areas of spin-current generation, spin-calorimetric effect, voltage effects on magnetic properties, spin-injection phenomena, giant magnetoresistance (GMR), and tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR). Spintronics is a cutting-edge area in the field of magnetism that studies the interplay of magnetism and transport phenomena, demonstrating how electrons not only have charge but also spin. This second edition provides the background to understand this novel physical phenomenon and focuses on the most recent developments and research relating to spintronics. This exciting new edition is an essential resource for graduate students, researchers, and professionals in industry who want to understand the concepts of spintronics, and keep up with recent research, all in one volume. - Provides a concise, thorough evaluation of current research - Surveys the important findings up to 2012 - Examines the future of devices and the importance of spin current

Over two volumes and 1500 pages, the Handbook of Spintronics will cover all aspects of spintronics science and technology, including fundamental physics, materials properties and processing, established and emerging device technology and applications. Comprising 60 chapters from a large international team of leading researchers across academia and industry, the Handbook provides readers with an up-to-date and comprehensive review of this dynamic field of research. The opening chapters focus on the fundamental physical principles of spintronics in metals and semiconductors, including an introduction to spin quantum computing. Materials systems are then considered, with sections on metallic thin films and multilayers, magnetic tunnelling structures, hybrids, magnetic semiconductors and molecular spintronic materials. A separate section reviews the various characterisation methods appropriate to spintronics materials, including STM, spin-polarised photoemission, x-ray diffraction techniques and spin-polarised SEM. The third part of the Handbook contains chapters on the state of the art in device technology and applications, including spin valves, GMR and MTJ devices, MRAM technology, spin transistors and spin logic devices, spin torque devices, spin pumping and spin dynamics and other topics such as spin caloritronics. Each chapter considers the challenges faced by researchers in that area and contains some indications of the direction that future work in the field is likely to take. This reference work will be an essential and long-standing resource for the spintronics community.

In a new branch of physics and technology, called spin-electronics or spintronics, the flow of electrical charge (usual current) as well as the flow of electron spin, the so-called "spin current", are manipulated and controlled together. This book is intended to provide an introduction and guide to the new physics and applications of spin current.

Learn more about foundational and advanced topics in polymer thin films and coatings besides species with this powerful two-volume resource The two-volume Inorganic and Organic Thin Films: Fundamentals, Fabrication, and Applications delivers a foundational resource for current researchers and commercial users involved in the design and fabrication of thin films. The book offers newcomers to the field a thorough description of new design theory, fabrication methods, and applications of advanced thin films. Readers will discover the physics and chemistry underlying the manufacture of new thin films and coatings in this leading new resource that promises to become a handbook for future applications of the technology. This one-stop reference brings together all important aspects of inorganic and polymeric thin films and coatings, including construction, assembly, deposition, functionality, patterning, and characterization. Explorations of their applications in industries as diverse as information technology, new energy, biomedical engineering, aerospace, and oceanographic engineering round out this fulsome exploration of one of the most exciting and rapidly developing areas of scientific and industrial research today. Readers will also learn from: A comprehensive introduction to the progress of thin films and coatings as well as fundamentals in functional thin films and coatings An exploration of multi-layered magnetic thin films for electron transport control and signal sensing, including giant magnetoresistance, colossal magnetoresistance, tunneling magnetoresistance, and the quantum anomalous Holzer effect An in time summary of high-quality magneto-optics, nanophotonics, spin waves and spintronics using bismuth-substituted iron garnet thin films as examples A thorough discussion of template-assisted fabrication of nanostructure thin films for ultrasensitive detection of chemicals and biomolecules A treatment of biomass derived functional films and coatings Perfect for materials scientists and inorganic chemists, Inorganic and Organic Thin Films will also earn a place in the libraries of solid state physicists and physical chemists working in private industry, as well as polymer and surface chemists who seek to improve their understanding of thin films and coatings.

In magnetic systems of nano-meter size, the interplay between spin and charge of electrons provides unique transport phenomena. In magnetic superlattices, magnetic and non-magnetic metallic thin films with thickness of the order of one nano-meter are piled-up alternately. Since the discovery of giant magnetoresistance (GMR) in these superlattices in 1988, spin dependent transport phenomena in magnetic nanostructures have received much attention from both academic and technological points of view. Ferromagnetic tunnel junctions made of ferromagnetic metal electrodes and a very thin insulating barrier between them are also of current interest as magnetoresistive devices, where the tunneling current depends on the relative orientation of magnetization (TMR). In addition to magnetic superlattices and magnetic tunnel junctions, magnetic granular systems and magnetic dots have been studied extensively as magnetoresistive systems. Edited by two of the world's leading authorities, Spin Dependent Transport in Magnetic Nanostructures introduces and explains the basic physics and applications of a variety of spin-dependent transport phenomena in magnetic nanostructures with particular emphasis on magnetic multilayers and magnetic tunnel junctions.

Heterostructures consist of combinations of different materials, which are in contact through at least one interface. Magnetic heterostructures combine different physical properties which do not exist in nature. This book provides the first comprehensive overview of an exciting and fast developing field of research, which has already resulted in numerous applications and is the basis for future spintronic devices.