This book describes clearly various research topics investigated for these 10 years in the Research Center of Advanced Structural and Functional Materials Design in Osaka University, Japan. Every chapter is aimed at understanding most advanced researches in materials science by describing its fundamentals and details as much as possible. Since both general explanations and cutting-edge commentaries are given for each topic in this book, it provides a lot of useful information for ordinary readers as well as materials scientists & engineers who wish to understand the future development in materials science fields of metals, alloys, ceramics, semiconductors etc. In particular, this book deals with special fusion area of structural and functional materials such as medical bone materials, of which contents are very unique features as materials science textbook.

This book brings together an emerging consensus on our understanding of the complex functional materials including ferroics, perovskites, multiferroics, CMR and high-temperature superconductors. The common theme is the existence of many competing ground states and frustration as a collusion of spin, charge, orbital and lattice degrees of freedom in the presence of disorder and (both dipolar and elastic) long-range forces. An important consequence of the complex unit cell and the competing interactions is that the emergent materials properties are very sensitive to external fields thus rendering these materials with highly desirable, technologically important applications enabled by cross-response.

This book describes clearly various research topics investigated for these 10 years in the Research Center of Advanced Structural and Functional Materials Design in Osaka University, Japan. Every chapter is aimed at understanding most advanced researches in materials science by describing its fundamentals and details as much as possible. Since both general explanations and cutting-edge commentaries are given for each topic in this book, it provides a lot of useful information for ordinary readers as well as materials scientists & engineers who wish to understand the future development in materials science fields of metals, alloys, ceramics, semiconductors etc. In particular, this book deals with special fusion area of structural and functional materials such as medical bone materials, of which contents are very unique features as materials science textbook.

This book brings together an emerging consensus on our understanding of the complex functional materials including ferroics, perovskites, multiferroics, CMR and high-temperature superconductors. The common theme is the existence of many competing ground states and frustration as a collusion of spin, charge, orbital and lattice degrees of freedom in the presence of disorder and (both dipolar and elastic) long-range forces. An important consequence of the complex unit cell and the competing interactions is that the emergent materials properties are very sensitive to external fields thus rendering these materials with highly desirable, technologically important applications enabled by cross-response.