Advances in Thin Film Magnetism

Dear Colleagues,

Magnetism in thin films is a fascinating field in which the restricted size, importance of the surface, and presence of a structurally and compositionally different substrate generate a rich variety of phenomena that no longer respect the thermodynamic limits established in bulk systems. The typical physical quantities, such as exchange interaction, spin–orbit coupling, and magnetic anisotropy, are seriously changed by the confinement between surface and interface, and frustration and interaction with foreign orbitals. The possibility to go beyond frontiers by accurately controlling the size, interface quality, and composition, which was facilitated by the technological progress of film deposition, has led to an unprecedented development of new materials with outstanding magnetic properties. For example, controlled strain (tensile or compressive) induced by lattice mismatch or by vacancies (chemical strain) was used to tune the magnetic phase or to change the easy axe direction. Moreover, new architectures as well as new materials (i.e., magnetic topologic insulators) opened the road for magnetization manipulation through electric field or charge current (spin transfer and spin orbit torque). In this broad landscape, new technological applications promptly emerged trying to satisfy the high demand for sensitive sensors, for ultrafast, nonvolatile, and scalable memories and logic application.

This Special Issue is dedicated to the most recent results related to the magnetism of thin films and their magnetic property manipulation. As the field of interest is very broad, the topics of interest must mainly include:

• Magnetism and magnetic phenomena of metallic films;
• Magnetism in nonmetallic films (perovskites and other complex oxides, topologic insulators);
• Disorder and magnetism in thin films;
• Multilayers and magnetism manipulation (spin transfer torque, spin–orbit torque, etc.) including design and fabrication.

However, the interest is not limited to these topics. Any other subject related to thin film magnetism is welcome.

Prof. Viorel Sandu
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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• Magnetic metallic thin films
• Magnetic nonmetallic thin films
• Strain engineering
• Magnetism of strongly disordered films
• Magnetic topological insulators
• Interface magnetism
• Multilayered architectures
• Spin orbit effects