Dear Colleagues,

Although the discovery of magnetic materials dates back to earlier than 4500 years ago, it was only in the twentieth century that scientists have begun to comprehensively understand the concept. Nowadays, magnetic materials are still widely exploited in modern technologies, and are becoming progressively more important in data storage, motors, generators, and transformers. The Nobel Prize in Physics (2007) was awarded to A. Fert and P. Grünberg for their studies on giant magnetoresistance, and the discoveries were soon implemented in harddrives.

Previously, only those materials that exhibited ferromagnetic or ferrimagnetic properties were considered as “magnetic.” In contrast, now, many compounds with diamagnetic, paramagnetic, and ferromagnetic properties are also been put into the concept of magnetic materials and widely investigated as well. It is well known that only nine elements are ferromagnets, of which three (Fe, Co, Ni) belong to iron-group metals, and the remaining six (Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm) are rare-earth metals. However, with the incorporation of foreign elements, magnetic compounds such as permalloy, NdFeB, Sm₂Co₁₇, and Heusler alloy can exhibit enhanced performances and produce various functionalities. Notably, in addition to the traditional applications, topographic magnetism, spin electronics and other new fields with diverse physical phenomena and mechanisms have sprung up in recent years.

At this moment, it is difficult to imagine a world without magnetic compounds. However, we have to admit that some fundamental problems related to magnetism or magnetic materials have still not been generally solved, even if we claim to be very “familiar” with them. From this perspective, the main focus of the forthcoming Special Issue is to publish some of the latest research points and understandings related to the physical mechanisms involved in magnetic compounds, and the development of their novel applications, as well as explorations beyond that.

It is my pleasure to invite you to submit a manuscript for this Special Issue. Full papers, communications, and reviews are all welcome.

Prof. Dr. Yin Zhang
Guest Editor

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• magnetic compounds
• magnetism
• magnetic functional materials
• permanent magnets
• magnetic nanomaterials
• spin-orbital coupling