Disordered magnetic systems enjoy non-trivial properties which are different and richer than those observed in their pure, non-disordered counterparts. These properties dramatically affect the thermodynamic behaviour and require specific theoretical treatment. This 2006 book deals with the theory of magnetic systems in the presence of frozen disorder, in particular paradigmatic and well-known spin models such as the Random Field Ising Model and the Ising Spin Glass. This is a unified presentation using a field theory language which covers mean field theory, dynamics and perturbation expansion within the same theoretical framework. Particular emphasis is given to the connections between different approaches such as statics vs. dynamics, microscopic vs. phenomenological models. The book introduces some useful and little-known techniques in statistical mechanics and field theory. This book will be of great interest to graduate students and researchers in statistical physics and basic field theory.

The science and technology related to semiconductors have received significant attention for applications in various fields including microelectronics, nanophotonics, and biotechnologies. Understanding of semiconductors has advanced to such a level that we are now able to design novel system complexes before we go for the proof-of-principle experimental demonstration. This book explains the experimental setups for optical spectral analysis of semiconductors and describes the experimental methods and the basic quantum mechanical principles underlying the fast-developing nanotechnology for semiconductors. Further, it uses numerous case studies with detailed theoretical discussions and calculations to demonstrate the data analysis. Covering structures ranging from bulk to the nanoscale, it examines applications in the semiconductor industry and biomedicine. Starting from the most basic physics of geometric optics, wave optics, quantum mechanics, solid-state physics, it provides a self-contained resource on the subject for university undergraduates. The book can be further used as a toolbox for researching and developing semiconductor nanotechnology based on spectroscopy.

- Covers theories and structure-property relations of ferromagnetic nanomaterials in various areas. - Provides novel approaches used to induce and tune ferromagnetism in nanomaterials for spintronic devices. - Widens fundamentals about ferromagnetism and mechanism for realization and advancement in devices with improved energy efficiency and high storage capacity.

The purpose of this monograph is both to introduce and review developed tomograhic methods for discovering 2D and 3D structures of the ionosphere and to discuss the experimental implementation of these methods. The theoretical part deals with the solution of the inverse problem of diffraction tomography for a wide range of properties of ionospheric media. Examples are given to illustrate the experimental reconstruction of electron-density distributions in ionospheric sections. In addition to addressing the specialist researcher, the detailed derivations and explanations make this book an excellent starting point for nonspecialists and graduate students who wish to enter this exciting new field to which the authors have made pioneering contributions.

This volume focuses on fundamental aspects of nano-electro-optics. Starting with fiber probes and related devices for generating and detecting the optical near-field with high efficiency and resolution, the next chapter addresses the modulation of an electron beam by optical near-fields. Further topics include: fluorescence spectroscopy, in which sample molecules are excited by the evanescent surface plasmon field close to metallic surfaces; spatially resolved near-field photoluminescence spectroscopy of semiconductor quantum dots, which will become an essential issue in future electro-optical devices and systems; and, finally, the quantum theory of the optical near-field. This latter theory accounts for all the essential features of the interaction between optical near-fields and nanomaterials, atoms and molecules. Together these overviews will be a valuable resource for engineers and scientists working in the field of nano-electro-optics.

-Covers advanced applications of ferromagnetic nanomaterials in various areas. -Provides novel approaches used to induce and tune ferromagnetism in nanomaterials for spintronic devices. - Explores newer nanomaterials including emerging 2D nanomaterials for their wide applications ranging from devices to biomedicals. -Provide new directions to scientists, researchers, and students to better understand the principle, technologies, and applications of nanomagnetism.

New Trends in Superconductivity contains up-to-date papers covering the most exciting current topics in superconductivity research. The main areas include cuprate superconductivity, covering mechanisms, pairing symmetry, pseudogap, stripes, growth and synthesis; novel superconductors, including MgB2, Sr2RuO4, borocarbides and C60-based systems; and mesoscopic superconductors and vortex matter, including vortex structure, type II superconductors, macroscopic quantum coherence and qubit devices and multilayer systems.

A useful, up-to-date reference of current research in all of these rapidly developing fields of superconductivity.

This book presents the fundamental concepts of the theory, illustrated by numerous examples of astrophysical applications. Classical concepts are combined with new developments and the authors demarcate what is well established and what is still under debate. To book illustrates how apparently complicated phenomena can be addressed and understood using well-known physical principles and equations within appropriate approximations and simplifications. For this purpose, a number of astrophysical examples are considered in greater detail than what is normally presented in a regular textbook. In particular, a number of nonlinear self-consistent models are considered, which is motivated by the latest observational data and modern theory.

This book is intended as an undergraduate textbook in electrodynamics at basic or advanced level. The objective is to attain a general understanding of the electrodynamic theory and its basic experiments and phenomena in order to form a foundation for further studies in the engineering sciences as well as in modern quantum physics. The outline of the book is obtained from the following principles: * Base the theory on the concept of force and mutual interaction * Connect the theory to experiments and observations accessible to the student * Treat the electric, magnetic and inductive phenomena cohesively with respect to force, energy, dipoles and material * Present electrodynamics using the same principles as in the preceding mechanics course * Aim at explaining that theory of relativity is based on the magnetic effect * Introduce field theory after the basic phenomena have been explored in terms of force Although electrodynamics is described in this book from its 1st principles, prior knowledge of about one semester of university studies in mathematics and physics is required, including vector algebra, integral and differential calculus as well as a course in mechanics, treating Newton's laws and the energy principle. The target groups are physics and engineering students, as well as professionals in the field, such as high school teachers and employees in the telecom industry. Chemistry and computer science students may also benefit from the book.

This fourth edition of the text reflects the continuing increase in awareness and use of computational electromagnetics and incorporates advances and refinements made in recent years. Most notable among these are the improvements made to the standard algorithm for the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method and treatment of absorbing boundary conditions in FDTD, finite element, and transmission-line-matrix methods. It teaches the readers how to pose, numerically analyze, and solve EM problems, to give them the ability to expand their problem-solving skills using a variety of methods, and to prepare them for research in electromagnetism. Includes new homework problems in each chapter. Each chapter is updated with the current trends in CEM. Adds a new appendix on CEM codes, which covers commercial and free codes. Provides updated MATLAB code.

This book provides a modern introduction to the growth, characterization, and physics of iron-based superconducting thin films. Iron pnictide and iron chalcogenide compounds have become intensively studied key materials in condensed matter physics due to their potential for high temperature superconductivity. With maximum critical temperatures of around 60 K, the new superconductors rank first after the celebrated cuprates, and the latest announcements on ultrathin films promise even more. Thin film synthesis of these superconductors began in 2008 immediately after their discovery, and this growing research area has seen remarkable progress up to the present day, especially with regard to the iron chalcogenides FeSe and FeSe1-xTex, the iron pnictide BaFe2-xCoxAs2 and iron-oxyarsenides. This essential volume provides comprehensive, state-of-the-art coverage of iron-based superconducting thin films in topical chapters with detailed information on thin film synthesis and growth, analytical film characterization, interfaces, and various aspects on physics and materials properties. Current efforts towards technological applications and functional films are outlined and discussed. The development and latest results for monolayer FeSe films are also presented. This book serves as a key reference for students, lecturers, industry engineers, and academic researchers who would like to gain an overview of this complex and growing research area.

In the last several decades, the quantum Hall effect has provided a remarkable platform for manipulating one-dimensional electronic modes and investigating fundamental physical phenomena. However, certain limitations make it difficult for various kinds of interesting modes structures to be formed using this platform. One example is the so called helical mode structure, in which two one-dimensional, counter propagating modes have opposite spins and thus spin and momentum are locked. Such helical modes have lately attracted significant interest, since, when coupled to a conventional superconductor, they are expected to manifest topological superconductivity and host Majorana zero modes. Even more interesting are fractional helical modes, which open the way for realizing generalized parafermionic zero modes. Possessing non-abelian exchange statistics, these quasiparticles may serve as building blocks in topological quantum computing. Here we present a new platform for manipulating integer and fractional quantum Hall edge modes, which allows the formation of robust one-dimensional helical as well as fractional helical modes. The platform is based on a carefully designed double-quantum-well structure in a GaAs based system hosting two electronic sub-bands in the quantum Hall effect regime. By electrostatic gating of different areas of the structure, counter-propagating integer, as well as fractional, edge modes with opposite spins are formed and their spin protection is verified. Beyond the formation of helical modes, the new platform can serve as a rich playground for new research. Some new possibilities include the artificial induction of compounded fractional edge modes and the construction of new edge mode-based interferometers.

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.

The aim of this NATO ASI has been to present an up-to-date overview of current areas of interest in amorphous materials. In order to limit the material to a manageable amount, the meeting was concerned exclusively with insulating and semiconducting materials. The lectures and seminars fill the gap between graduate courses and research seminars. The lecturers and seminar speakers were chosen as experts in their respective areas and the lectures and seminars that were given are presented in this volume. During the first week of the meeting. an emphasis was placed on introductory lectures, mainly associated with questions relating to the glass-formation and the structure of glasses. The second week focused more on research seminars. Each day of the meeting. about four posters were presented during the coffee breaks, and these formed an important focus for discussions. The posters are not reproduced in this volume as the editors wanted to have only larger contributions to make this volume more coherent. This volume is organized into four sections, starting with general considerations of the glass forming ability and techniques for the preparation of different kinds of glasses.

During the last thirty years a great advancement in low energy physics, particularly interactions of atoms with the electromagnetic field, has been achieved and the development of electronics and laser techniques has allowed to implement a fine manipulation of atoms with photons. A wealth of important applications has sprung out from the ability of manipulating large samples of cold atoms. Among them, the improvement of atomic clocks and the creation of atomic gyroscopes and of atomic gravity meters, which is obviously of great interest for geodesists and geophysicists, particularly for potential applications in satellite geodesy. This book explains the fundamental concepts necessary to understand atom manipulation by photons, including the principles of quantum mechanics. It is conceived as a road that leads the reader from classical physics (mechanics and electromagnetism, considered as a common scientific background of geodesists and geophysicists), to the basics of quantum mechanics in order to understand the dynamics of atoms falling in the gravity field, while interacting with suitably resonant laser beams. There are different types of measurements of gravity based on the manipulation of ultra-cold atoms; the book presents the principles of the instruments based on stimulated Raman transition, which can be easily worked out analytically. However, the concepts explained in the text can provide a good starting point to understand also the applications based on the so-called Block oscillations or on the Bose-Einstein condensation.

After a brief outline of magnetohydrodynamic theory, this introductory book discusses the macroscopic aspects of MHD turbulence, and covers the small-scale scaling properties. Applications are provided for astrophysical and laboratory systems. Magnetic turbulence is the natural state of most astrophysical systems, such as stellar convection zones, stellar winds or accretion discs. It is also found in laboratory devices, most notably in the reversed field pinch.

Over the last few decades, magnetism has seen an enormous expansion into a variety of different areas of research, notably the magnetism of several classes of novel materials that share with truly ferromagnetic materials only the presence of magnetic moments.

Volume 22 of the "Handbook of Magnetic Materials," like the preceding volumes, has a dual purpose. With contributions from leading authorities in the field, it includes a variety of topics which are intended as self-contained introductions to a given area in the field of magnetism without requiring recourse to the published literature. It is also intended as a reference for scientists active in magnetism research, providing readers with novel trends and achievements in magnetism. Volume 22 comprises topical review articles covering perovskite manganites and their modifications, the magnetocaloric effect in intermetallic compounds and alloys, the scaling potential of particulate media in magnetic tape recording and layered iron superconductor systems. In each of these articles an extensive description is given in graphical as well as in tabular form, much emphasis being placed on the discussion of the experimental material within the framework of physics, chemistry and material science.
Composed of topical review articles written by leading authoritiesIntroduces given topics in the field of magnetismProvides the reader with novel trends and achievements in magnetism

Many technological applications exploit a variety of magnetic structures, or magnetic phases, to produce and optimise solid-state functionality. However, most research advances are restricted to a reduced number of phases owing to computational and resource constraints. This thesis presents an ab-initio theory to efficiently describe complex magnetic phases and their temperature-dependent properties. The central assumption is that magnetic phases evolve slowly compared with the underlying electronic structure from which they emerge. By describing how the electronic structure adapts to the type and extent of magnetic order, a theory able to describe multi-spin correlations and their effect on the magnetism at finite temperature is obtained. It is shown that multi-spin correlations are behind the temperature and magnetic field dependence of the diverse magnetism in the heavy rare earth elements. Magnetically frustrated Mn-based materials and the effect of strain are also investigated. These studies demonstrate that the performance of solid-state refrigeration can be enhanced by multi-spin effects.

This book gathers selected papers from the Chinese Materials Conference 2018 (CMC2018) held in Xiamen City, Fujian, China, on July 12-16, 2018. The Chinese Materials Conference (CMC) is the Chinese Materials Research Society's most important conference series and has been held annually since the early 1990s. The 2018 edition consisted of 32 domestic symposia, 2 international symposia and 1 international materials forum. This proceedings book covers the fields of powder metallurgy, advanced aluminum alloys, advanced magnesium alloys, superalloys, metal matrix composites, space materials science and technology, as well as nanoporous metal materials, and presents recent original research findings from more than 300 research groups at various universities and research institutes.

The aims of the book are: (1) to extend Maxwell theory to non-Abelian group forms; (2) to demonstrate that the foundations of electromagnetism are topological; (3) to show the multi-disciplinary nature of communications; (4) to demonstrate the effectiveness of modulated signals in penetrating media; (5) to demonstrate that geometric (Clifford) algebra is the appropriate algebra describing modulated signals.The book is important in indicating that the classical theory of electromagnetism, or Maxwell theory, can be developed to address situations and signals of differing symmetry form, and that different topological spaces require that development.

This book originated out of a desire to provide students with an instrument which might lead them from knowledge of elementary classical and quantum physics to moderntheoreticaltechniques for the analysisof electrontransport in semiconductors. The book is basically a textbook for students of physics, material science, and electronics. Rather than a monograph on detailed advanced research in a speci?c area, it intends to introduce the reader to the fascinating ?eld of electron dynamics in semiconductors, a ?eld that, through its applications to electronics, greatly contributed to the transformationof all our lives in the second half of the twentieth century, and continues to provide surprises and new challenges. The ?eld is so extensive that it has been necessary to leave aside many subjects, while others could be dealt with only in terms of their basic principles. The book is divided into ?ve major parts. Part I moves from a survey of the fundamentals of classical and quantum physics to a brief review of basic semiconductor physics. Its purpose is to establish a common platform of language and symbols, and to make the entire treatment, as far as pos- ble, self-contained. Parts II and III, respectively, develop transport theory in bulk semiconductors in semiclassical and quantum frames. Part IV is devoted to semiconductor structures, including devices and mesoscopic coherent s- tems. Finally, Part V develops the basic theoretical tools of transport theory within the modern nonequilibrium Green-function formulation, starting from an introduction to second-quantization formalism.

The discovery of high-temperature superconductivity was hailed as a major scientific breakthrough, inducing an unprecedented wave of excitement and expectation among the scientific community and in the international press. This book sets this research breakthrough in context, and reconstructs the history of the discovery. The authors analyze the emergence of this new research field and the way its development was shaped by scientists and science policy makers. They also examine the various institutional and national settings in which the research was undertaken as well as considering the scientific backgrounds and motivations of researchers who entered the field following the original discovery.

Magnetic and spintronic materials are ubiquitous in modern technological applications, e.g. in electric motors, power generators, sensors and actuators, not to mention information storage and processing. Medical technology has also greatly benefited from magnetic materials - especially magnetic nanoparticles - for therapy and diagnostics methods. All of the above-mentioned applications rely on the properties of the materials used. These properties in turn depend on intrinsic and extrinsic material parameters. The former are related to the actual elements used and their properties, e.g. atomic magnetic moment and exchange interaction between atoms; the latter are related to the structural and microstructural properties of the materials used, e.g. their crystal structure, grain size, and grain boundary phases. Focusing on state-of-the-art magnetic and spintronic materials, this book will introduce readers to a range of related topics in Physics and Materials Science. Phenomena and processes at the nanoscale are of particular importance in this context; accordingly, much of the book addresses such topics.