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Uses of ferromagnetic materials may
be sorted according to: |
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Soft magnets; e.g. Fe - alloys |
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- Everything profiting from an "iron core": Transformers,
Motors, Inductances, ...
- Shielding magnetic fields.
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Hard magnets; e.g. metal oxides or
"strange" compounds. |
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- Permanent magnets for loudspeakers, sensors, ...
- Data storage (Magnetic tape, Magnetic disc drives, ...
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Even so we have essentially only
Fe, Ni and Co (+ Cr, O and Mn in
compounds) to work with, innumerable magnetic materials with optimized
properties have been developed. |
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Strongest permanent magnets:
Sm2Co17
Nd2Fe14B |
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New complex materials (including
"nano"materials) are needed and developed all the time. |
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Data storage provides a large
impetus to magnetic material development and to
employing new effects like "GMR"; giant magneto resistance; a
purely quantum mechanical effect. |
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© H. Föll
