4.4.3 Summary to: Technical Materials and Applications

Uses of ferromagnetic materials may be sorted according to:
Soft magnets; e.g. Fe - alloys  
  • Everything profiting from an "iron core": Transformers, Motors, Inductances, ...
  • Shielding magnetic fields.
Hard magnets; e.g. metal oxides or "strange" compounds.  
  • Permanent magnets for loudspeakers, sensors, ...
  • Data storage (Magnetic tape, Magnetic disc drives, ...
     
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.  
Strongest permanent magnets:
Sm2Co17
Nd2Fe14B
New complex materials (including "nano"materials) are needed and developed all the time.  
   
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 (Electronic Materials - Script)