ABSTRACT

MAGNETIC

Magnetic materials encompass a wide variety of materials, which are used in a diverse
range of applications. Magnetic materials are utilized in the creation and distribution
of electricity, and, in most cases, in the appliances that use that electricity. They are
usedfor the storage of data on audiotape and videotape and on computer disks. In the
world of medicine, they are used in body scanners and in a range of applications
where they are attached to or implanted into the body. The home entertainment
market relies on magnetic materials in applications such as PCs, CD players,
televisions, games consoles, and loudspeakers.

The magnetic properties of matter are primarily determined by crystal structure and
the number of outer electrons on the metal atoms. After a brief description of the
principal structures of nonmetallic, magnetic materials, there is a discussion of the
two most widely used descriptions of outer electrons in solids: the collectiveelectron
description of band theory and the localized-electron description of ligand-field theory.
A numerical estimate of the critical separation Rc for transition-metal atoms is given,
in which the collective-electron picture is more appropriate for R < Rc and the
localizedelectron description is better for R > Rc. Octahedral vs tetrahedral
site-preference energies of transition-metal cations play an important role in spinels
and garnets - ferrimagnetic materials in wide use in practical applications. The present
state of theoretical site-preference energies is critically reviewed, and it is pointed out
that failure to account properly for anion polarizations has led to incorrect quantitative
conclusions, which have been previously predicted on a point-charge ligand-field
model. Since the melting point Tmp of a transition-metal compound is primarily
determined by the outer s-p electrons, there may be a transition temperature Tt < Tmp
below which there is d electron ordering. Such ordering is usually reflected in both
the crystallographic and magnetic properties of these materials. Nine types of electron
ordering at a Tt < Tmp are identified and briefly discussed.

OPTICAL

Engineering materials are important in everyday life because of their versatile

structural properties. Other than these properties, they do play an important role
because of their physical properties. Prime physical properties of materials include:
electrical properties; thermal properties; magnetic properties; and optical properties.
The optical properties of engineering materials are useful in different applications. Ex.:
domestic, medicine, astronomy, manufacturing
Measurement of optical properties in the VUV depends on photometric data rather
than a mixture of photometric and relative phase data. Generally the measurement
technique is that of measuring the reflected intensity at a number of angles of
incidence and fitting these data to a calculated reflectance curve. The actual measured
reflectance values need not always be known but are helpful in the final analysis of
the data. Other more specialized methods include a critical angle method and the
determination of extinction coefficients from transmittance measurements. The
accuracy of the reflectance methods depends on the optical properties of the material
being measured and the angles of incidence at which reflectance measurements are
made. Instrumental errors and the condition of the surface being measured can also
cause appreciable errors in the results. Accurate values of the optical constants can be
used to characterize the electronic structure of a material and to design special
reflecting and transmitting coatings for use in EUV astronomy and laboratory
applications and possibly for use with excimer lasers in the VUV.