: CSU : Department of Physics : Magnetics Laboratory : 

The Research Program

The magnetics laboratory is engaged in a variety of basic and applied research problems that range from the fundamental understanding of magnetic order to the study of materials and device structures for information storage, radar, and high frequency signal processing applications. The present emphasis is on microwave and millimeter wave excitations, nonlinear interactions in precession dynamics, spin wave instability processes and envelope solitons in ferrites and thin films, spin wave chaos and fractals, Brillouin light scattering on magnetic excitations, hexagonal ferrite materials, metallic thin films, multi-ferroics, and multifuncitonal materials. These programs are supported by numerous government agencies and industrial sponsors. Present and past sponsors include the National Science Foundation, the U. S. Army Research Office, the Office of Naval Research (USA), the Information Storage Industry Consortium (INSIC), NATO, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the U. S. Air Force, NASA, IREX, Trans Tech, Rockwell International, Honeywell, Verbatim, TRW, Ampex, Westinghouse, Northrop Grumman, EDO Ceramics, Pacific Ceramics, Seagate Technology, and Raytheon Company. The group has an international flavor, with present and past research students and visiting scientists from Belarus, Bulgaria, Canada, The Czech Republic, The Peoples Republic of China, Germany, Great Britain, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Pakistan, Russia, Slovakia, Switzerland, and the Ukraine, as well as the USA.

Current Research Grants:

  • New magnetic materials and phenomena for radar and microwave signal processing devices - bulk and thin film ferrites and metallic thin films
    Office of Naval Research
  • Giga-Hertz electromagnetic wave science and devices for advanced battlefield communications.
    U. S. Army Research Office
  • Linear and nonlinear loss in heads and media materials - microwave dynamics, direct MOKE detection of Suhl processes in precession and switching, and patterned media dynamics
    Information Storage Industry Consortium
  • Ferromagnetic resonance system development and AMFer collaboration
    University of Idaho
  • Instrumentation for microwave measurements on ferrite materials for advanced multifunction microwave systems
    Office of Naval Research
  • Research Engineering Apprenticeship Program
    Academy of Applied Science (U. S.Army Research Office)
  • Magnetodynamics in heads and media films
    Seagate Technology

The work of the laboratory has been in many areas, including domain wall dynamics in thin films, the effect of atomic order on the magnetic state of systems with competing ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic order, spin canting in substituted ferrites, microwave relaxation processes in ferromagnetic thin films, microwave loss mechanisms in ferrites, nonlinear dynamics in magnetic systems, magnetism in spin glasses, Brillouin light scattering on magnetic excitations, giant magnetoresistance in thin film sandwiches, microwave magnetic envelope solitons in thin films, linear and nonlinear precession dynamics, spin wave chaos and fractal, and nanomagnetodynamics. Applied research has been concerned with studies of lunar soil magnetism, microstructure in ferrites, magnetic films for perpendicular recording and high density storage, metallic powders for microwave absorber applications, new materials for millimeter wave applications, microwave soliton thin film devices, and surface damage effects in recording head materials.

The laboratory has a variety of experimental facilities for these programs:

 
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