This book presents a coherent overview of the use of ultrasonic methods to study properties of both magnetic materials and non-magnetic metals. Much of the recent work in this area was done in the former Soviet Union and is not widely known in the West.
The authors discuss not only the experimental techniques for using polarization effects with ultrasonic measurements, but also the theoretical basis for interpreting the data. Such experiments yield information not only about the vibrational spectra of the material over a wide range of frequencies, but also about electromagnetic properties.
The book should interest workers in the areas of materials science and engineering, solid state physics, and physical acoustics. It includes an extensive and up-to-date bibliography with more than 200 references to the published literature.

This book had its conception when Dr. Gudkov visited me in Austin in the Fall of 1995 and urged me to join him in writing a review of the field of magnetoacoustic polarization phenomena. I protested that, although my students and I had done some early work on this topic, most of the later work was done by researchers at the Institute for Metal Physics and by other investigators in the former Soviet Union. He eventually persuaded me that my initial contribution and general experience with magnetoacoustic phenomena qualified me to serve as a co-author. When I considered the fact that the extensive exploration of magnetoacoustic phenomena in the former Soviet Union was relatively unknown to Western scientists, I agreed to work with him on this project. In order to make the material more accessible to nonspecialists, we have adopted consistent notation throughout the text and redrawn the figures from published papers in a consistent fashion. Because our two institutions lie on opposite sides of the world, we needed some financial support to bring the book to fruition. We are very grateful to the Science Program for International Collaboration of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization for financial support through Grant No. HTECH. CRG 951549. I have dedicated this book to my wife, Janie, in recognition of the support she has given me throughout my professional career. J. D.