Selected papers from the 19th International Colloquium on Magnetic Films and Surfaces

Abstract

The 19th International Colloquium on Magnetic Films and Surfaces (ICMFS 2006) was held on 14–18 August 2006 at the Sendai International Center in Sendai, Japan. The purpose of the Colloquium was to bring together scientists working on magnetic thin films and surfaces and to provide an opportunity for presentation and discussion of recent experimental and theoretical advances in the field. 285 scientists from 17 countries (Japan: 167, overseas: 118) participated in the Colloquium, as well as 6 family members. There were 56 oral and 178 poster presentations. The oral presentations consisted of 3 plenary talks, 23 invited talks and 30 contributed talks. The number of presentations by scientific category are as follows:Spin dependent transport: 43 Magnetic storage/memory: 9 Magnetization reversal and fast dynamics: 15 Spin injection and spin transfer torque: 26 Magnetic thin films and multilayers: 71 High spin polarization materials: 17 Hard and soft magnetic materials: 3 Magneto-optics: 5 Characterization techniques for thin films and surfaces: 7 Exchange coupling: 13 Micro- and nanopatterned magnetic structures: 18 Micromagnetic modelling: 2One of the characteristics of the present Colloquium is an increase in the number of presentations in the field of spin-electronics, as seen above. This Cluster Issue of Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics includes several important papers in this rapidly developing field. We believe that, in the future, the field of magnetic materials will maintain its popularity and, on top of that, other fields such as spintronics materials, materials related to life sciences and medicine and also materials related to the environment will be investigated further. The ICMFS Conference started in London in 1964, and is now one of the world-wide conferences on magnetism. The Colloquium has been held in Japan four times now: the previous ones being the 5th ICMFS in the Mount Fuji area, the 10th at Yokohama and the 17th at Kyoto, which was organized by Professors Shinjo and Maekawa. The city of Sendai, where the 19th ICMFS was held, is the historical place for magnetism research in Japan. Kotaro Honda, who was a professor of Tohoku University in Sendai, laid the foundation for this research in Japan, and he was followed by Siji Kaya, Haraku Masumoto and Minoru Takahashi, also professors of Tohoku University. They continued the spirit founded by Honda and contributed greatly to the progress of research in magnetism. Therefore, it was a great pleasure for the organizers to have the ICMFS Conference come to Sendai. The 19th ICMFS Colloquium was co-hosted by the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science and the Foundation Advanced Technology Institute and supported by the Japanese Society of Applied Physics, the Magnetics Society of Japan, the Physical Society of Japan and the Japan Institute of Metals. This colloquium was also jointly held with the Conference on the Physics and Application of Spin-related Phenomena in Semiconductors (PASPS). All the members of the Organizing Committee would like to thank the members of the International Advisory Committee for scientific and administrative advice, and the Sendai Tourism and Convention Bureau, the Iwatani Naoji Foundation, the Asahi Glass Foundation and the Intelligent Cosmos Academic Foundation for their financial support. Without doubt, the Colloquium was a great success overall. The smooth and excellent running of the Colloquium would not have been possible without the assistance of the Program Committee and local members of the Colloquium.