The optical electrical and magnetic properties of the europium chalcogenides and the rare earth pnictides

Abstract

Magnetism has been a topic of study since the ancient times of science. Judging by the number of papers appearing each year, the group of scientists concerned with the properties of magnetic materials is vastly expanding. The reason for the great interest in this field is not only the wide application which these materials have found in technology, but also the chance to contribute to the understanding of basic physics. The term “magnetic material” in this article refers to a substance which spontaneously exhibits magnetic order below a certain temperature. This magnetic order can be of the ferro-, ferri-, antiferro-, or metamagnetic kind. However, within these magnetic structures ferromagnetism appears to be the most important one. Ferromagnetism is defined by the spontaneous parallel alignment of atomic magnetic moments over relatively large regions of a solid. Magnetic order is limited to compounds which contain elements with incompletely filled electron shells, as for example, the transition elements.