What's new about the Magnetic Materials Center at NIMS

2011.2.2
Dr. Yukiko Takahashi et al. reported a large spin signal from a lateral spin valves with metallic junctions between Co2Fe(Ge0.5Ga0.5) Heusler alloy and Cu in Applied Physics Letters, 100, 052405 (2012). The spin signal was 17 times larger than that reported for permalloy/Cu lateral spin valve, and is the largest for LSV without oxide tunnel barrier. Since the device resistance is low, it is expected to be suitable for narrow read sensors of ultrahigh density hard disk drives.

2011.12.13
Dr. Tomoya Nakatani, a JSPS fellow at MMU, got married with Miho Yamaguchi. Photo of the wedding.

2011.11.8
・The Japan Institute of Metals awarded Prof. Kazuhiro Hono, Fellow of NIMS and Director of MMU, to The Japan Institute of Metals Distinguished Achievement Award（Science） at the JIM Fall Meeting held in Naha in November 8, 2011. This award is the 2nd highest honor of JIM after the JIM's Gold metal that is given only to senior members thus is regarded as the highest honor for active members.
・Mr. Masaya Kodzuka, 3rd year Ph.D. student at the Graduate School of Pure and Applied Sciences, University of Tsukuba (supervisor: K. Hono) won the best poster award in the Japan Institute of Metal's Fall Meeting in Naha in November 8, 2011. The title of the presentation was "3DAP analysis of Hesuler alloy CPP-GMR devices".　

2011.11.4
Prof. Kazuhiro Hono, Fellow of NIMS and Director of MMU, has been appointed as guest professor of Shanghai Jiao Tong University from September 2011 to 2014.

2011.10.31
Antiferromagnetically coupled trilayer magnetoresistive sensor develped by Dr. Tomoya M. Nakatani, JSPS fellow working at MMU, has been published in APL 99, 182505 (2011).

2011.9.21
Two post doc positions (Rare Earth Permanent Magnets and Heusler alloy CPP-GMR) have been posted.

2011.9.21
Dr. Yukiko Takahashi, Senior Researcher, gave an invited talk on "L10-ordered FePtAg-C granular films for thermally assisted magnet recording media" at the IUMRS-ICA 2011 held in Spember 19-22 in Taipei.

2011.9.19
Prof. Kazuhiro Hono, Director of MMU, gave the following two keynote lectures at EUROMAT2011 held in Montpellier, France, in September 12-15.

2011.8.29
Dr. T. M. Nakatani, JSPS fellow at MMU, gave an invited talk on Heusler alloy CPP-GMR for narrow read sensors at the Magnetic Recording Conference 2011, TMRC2011 held in Minneapolis in August 29, 2011.

2011.8.24
The Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) has announed to fund Prof. Kazuhiro Hono, Fellow of NIMS, for his research proposal on the development of high coercivity Dy free Nd-Fe-B based permanent magnets as a project in the research area of "Creation of Innovative Functions of Intelligent Materials on the Basis of the Element Strategy" in the Core Research of Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST) program.

2011.8.24
A US magazine SCIENCE NEWS reported the recent research activitiy on permanent magnets at MMU, NIMS in the August 27, 2011 iussue.

2011.7.1
Dr. Yukiko Takahashi, Senior Researcher of MMU, has been awarded to Honda Memorial Award for Young Scientists from the Honda Memorial Foundation.

2011.6.23
Dr. Yukiko K. Takahashi, Senior Scientist at MMU, will gave an invited talk "FePtAg-C nanogranular film as thermally assisted magnetic recording media" at MORIS 2011

2011.4.1
Due to the reorganization at NIMS in April 1, 2011, the magnetic materials center was reorganized as a research unit in the newly established Environment and Energy Division. Accordingly, the center has been renamed "Magnetic Materials Unit". People has been updated.
Most of the laboratory facilities that were shut down due to the earthquake in March 11 have been recovered. Experimental research activities are resumed.

2011.3.11
Due to the earthquake in northern Kanto and Tohoku area on March 11, the expecimental facilities at MMC got substantial damages. The research activities at MMC has been suspended since then.

2010.11.11
TMS has announced the recepients of TMS Fellows Award for 2011. Dr. Kazuhiro Hono, Managing Director of the center, has will be awarded to be TMS Fellows for 2011 in the TMS annual meeting to be held in February 2011 in San Diego.
2010.11.11
BBC reported the research activity on rare earth magnets at the magnetic materials ceter, NIMS.

2010.9.27
Mr. Yimeng Chen, Graduate Student of Univ. Tsukuba supervised by Prof. Hono, has won Class 6: The DuBose-Crouse Award for Unique, Unusual and new Techniques in Microscopy, in the 2010 International Metalloggraphic contest held jointly by the International metallographic Society and ASM International. He has received a plaque and a cash award of $200.
2010.9.5
Hossei Sepheri-Amin, Ph.D. student of the Graduate School of Pure and Applied Sciences, Univ. Tsukuba working at MMC, NIMS has received the best student presentation award at the 34th Annual Conference on MAGNETICS in Japan that was held in September 4 - 7 in Tsukuba.

2010.9.3
Hossei Sepheri-Amin, Ph.D. student of the Graduate School of Pure and Applied Sciences, Univ. Tsukuba working at MMC, NIMS has received the 2nd best poster award in the 21st Workshop on Rare-Earth Permanent Magnets and their Applications held in 29 August - 2 September 2010, Bled, Slovenia.

2010.9.3
Press release on a new method to enhance the coercivity of Nd-Fe-B permanent magnets has been posted. Link to the paper.

2010.8.27
The following two invted talks will be given in the 55th Annual Conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials (MMM 2010) to be held in November 15 and 17 2010 in Atlanta, USA.

Mon, Nov. 15: 8:30 - 9:06: AF-01. L. Zhang; Y. K. Takahashi, B. C. Stipe and K. Hono, L1₀-ordered FePtAgC granular thin film for thermally-assisted magnetic recording (TAR) media
Wed. Nov. 17: 20:50-21:30: FZ-03. K. Hono, T. Ohkubo, and H. Sepehri-Amin, Microstructure and coercivity relationships in permanent magnets for energy-efficient devices

2010.8.24
An opening of a post doc position in transmission electron microscopy has been posted.

2010.8.2
Press release on FePt perpendicular magnetic recording media for thermally-assisted magnetic recording (TAR). Link to theTMRC 2010 Digest.(8.3 MB)

2010.4.10
・Application to the graduate research assistantship for the Materials Science and Engineering Program of the Graduate School of Pure and Applied Sciences, the University of Tsukuba, is now called (details).
・A post doctoral position on the microstructure-property relationships of Sm-Fe-N is now available.
2010.4.1
Dr. Masamitsu Hayashi, formerly senior researcher at the Exploratory Nanomaterials Research Laboratory at NIMS, has moved to the Spintronics Group as senior researcher.

2010.3.28
Mr. Yinming Chen, a graduate student at MMC, NIMS & Univ. Tsukuba, won the excellent metallography award together with Drs. Tadakatsu Ohkubo, Koji Morita and Kazuhiro Hono in the 2010 Spring Meeting of the Japan Institute of Metals held at the University of Tsukuba.

2010.3.22
A post doc position on a permanent magnet project is availabe.

2009.9.13
Dr. Koichiro Inomata, Emeritus Fellow of NIMS (Magnetic Materials Center) has been awarded to the Magnetic Society of Japan Award for 2010,the highest honor of MSJ, at the annual meeting of MSJ in September 13, 2009.

2009.9.4
Applications to the Graduate Program of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Tsukuba for academic year 2010 is now invited. The application deadline is November 6, 2009. details

2009.7.7
"Demonstration of half-metallicity in Fermi-level-tuned Heusler alloy Co₂FeAl_0.5Si_0.5 at room temperature" by R. Shan et al. PRL 102, 246601 (2009), has bee listed in the Editor's Choice of Science, Vol. 325, Issue of 03 July 2009.

2009.6.15
Mr. Y. M. Chen, Dr. T. Ohkubo and Prof. K. Hono have succeeded in obtaining 3D atomic tomography from an insulating bulk ceramics sample (yittoria stabilized tetragonal zirconia with spinel dispersoids) by laser assisted 3D atom probe using a UV femto-second pulsed laser. This is the firs successful atom probe analysis of insulating bulk ceramics sample. The paper has been accepted for publication in Scripta Materialia.

2009.4.1
Dr. Shinya Kasai, formerly Kyoto Univerisity, joined the Spintronics Group as as a senior researcher.
Dr. Seiji Mitami, formerly Chief Researcher, has been appointed as Spintronics Group Leader.
Dr. Koichiro Inomata, formerly NIMS Fellow and Spintronics Group Leader, has been honored as Emeritus Fellow.

2009.2.23
The Honda Memorial Foundation announced that Prof. Kazuhiro Hono, Fellow of NIMS and Managing Director of Magnetic Materials Center, NIMS, has been selected as a recepient of the 6th Honda Frontier Award. The award ceremony is to be held in May 8th in Gakushi Kaikan.

2008.10.6
A workshop on "Microstructures and Properties of Magnetic Materials" will be held in October 27, 2008 at NIMS coorganized by the Magnetic Materials Center and International Center for Materials Nanoarchitronics. Everyone is welcome to attend. No registration fee.

2008.10.1
Prof. David. E. Laughlin will give a MMC Lecture on Atomic and Magnetic Ordering in Alloys at 9:00 am in October 23 at the Sengen Site, NIMS. Everyone is welcome.

2008.10.1
Dr. Seiji Mitani, formerly Associate Professor at the Institute of Materials Research, Tohoku University, has joined the spintronics group as a Chief Researcher.

2008.9.14
Furubayashi et al. have reported relatively large current-perpendicular-to-plane giant magnetoresistance (CPP-GMR) values from the spin valves made of Co₂FeAlSi and Co₂MnSi Heusler alloy electrodes. The results have been presented at the 32nd annual conference of the magnetic society of Japan in September 14, 2008. The abstracts have been published in the Digests of the 32nd Annual Conference on Magnetics in Japan 2008, 13pB-6 and 14a2PS-29. These results will be presented in the 53rd Annual Conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, November 10 -14, Austin. A part of the results has been published in Appl. Phys. Lett.

Perumal et al. succeeded in processing L10 FePt-C nanogranular perpendicular anisotropy films on oxidized Si substrates with a (100) textured MgO intermediate layer. The films have well-isolated L10 FePt nanoparticles with a c-axis texture and the particle size was 5.5nm with a size distribution of 2.3nm in variance by adjusting FePt thickness. Perpendicular coercivity is controllable between 8 and 15 kOe with high squareness. The results were presented at the 32nd annual conference of the magnetic society of Japan in September 14, 2008. The abstracts have been published in the Digests of the 32nd Annual Conference on Magnetics in Japan 2008, 12pA-3. The result will be presented in the 53rd Annual Conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, November 10 -14, Austin. A part of the results has been published in Applied Physics Express.

2008.9.2
Dr. Koichiro Inomata, Fellow of NIMS and Spintronics Group Leader, was honored as fellow of Applied Physics Society of Japan at the annual meeting of the Applied Physics Society of Japan held in Chubu University in September 2. The citation is on his distinguished research on spintronics and magnetism of metals.