This book, written by A.P. Guimarães of the Brazilian Centre for Physical Research, is purportedly aimed at final-year undergraduate courses or graduate courses in magnetism, magnetic materials, and magnetic resonance. Indeed, the text is based on a course taught to graduate students in the author’s own institute in Rio de Janeiro. Included are exercises written by I.S. Oliveira who, refreshingly, gives rather more detailed solutions than the norm. Its considerable mathematical content does, however, direct the book more towards physicists than to chemists, who are likely to find it heavy going.
The author points out that the world market for magnetic media and recording equipment is significantly greater than that of semiconductor materials. As well as being fascinating areas of research, magnetism and related phenomena are therefore of great economic importance. The first part of the book gives a good, if not novel, overview of the properties of magnetic materials and magnetic interactions in solid materials and is here that the chemist, or material scientist, is likely to find the most profitable reading.
The latter parts, on nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and ferromagnetic nuclear resonance (FNR), are rather less convincing. NMR is dealt with in a mere 36 pages (including general reading, references and exercises) and this chapter offers nothing that is not already better dealt with in numerous other textbooks. The back cover refers to ‘applications of magnetic resonance in medicine continuing to revolutionise the diagnostic process and alter our understanding of the human body’, but readers will be unable to find any description of such applications inside. The chapter on FNR is extremely specialised and the author introduces the technique without any justification for its selection.
Nevertheless, the book is well produced with clearly drawn figures and is commendably free from factual and typographical errors. I appreciated the general reading and reference lists at the end of each chapter and I am enjoying working through the exercises – albeit sneaking a lot at the solutions! However, at £45.50 it is unlikely that anyone other than specialists in the field will buy the book.
Geoff Hunter
This book is arranged in eight chapters, with the first six dealing with fundamental aspects of magnetism in materials. A basic introduction is given to types of magnetic material and atomic magnetism, which is then expanded to cover itinerant electron magnetism, magnetization processes and hyperfine interactions. All the material that one would expect of an advanced undergraduate text on magnetism in solids covered. Clear explanations are given of the relations between quantities that are often confusing to those who do not deal with magnetic materials every day. Examples include B, H, and M, the different forms of susceptibility, and in particular the perennial problem of comparing results from papers written in SI and cgs units. It is helpful to have a text to dip into that has the major results in both systems of units to be sure where the 4p occurs. The author is to be commended in presenting the material concisely in a readable way that flows well and should be accessible to good undergraduate students in the final years of their course. The text is illustrated by a well chosen set of figures, many of which make good use of the primary literature with modern examples.
Chapter 7 gives an introduction to NMR which in the context of the book is fine but is too brief to be really helpful to a student meeting the topic for the first time as it moves rapidly in the space of 35 pages from the fundamental concepts of NMR to quadrupole oscillations. The final chapter brings together the topics of magnetic materials and NMR to provide an introduction to magnetic resonance in magnetic materials, which must be one of the first times this has been done in an undergraduate textbook of this type, and it made interesting reading.
Each chapter gives lists of additional background texts and references to the primary literature, which is very helpful. There is also a series of problems that are very relevant to the material presented with answers provided. Diligent students should find most of these helpful but they may be a bit daunting to weaker students. The book is undoubtedly targeted at physicists since it leans heavily on concepts from undergraduate physics and this may make it less accessible to materials scientists interested in magnetic materials. Also, it does not really deal with applications. In general the book has been produced with only the odd typographical error. It is a book that can be recommended as good background reading for more motivated physics students learning about magnetism in solid materials. It will be a good purchase for the shelves of libraries of particularly universities, and also perhaps of research laboratories, and I regard it as a useful addition to my own collection.
Mark. E. Smith, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK
Having had a great number of books on magnetism and magnetic resonance already in print, one might wonder what new could be said in these fields being explored for so many years. As surprising as it may seem, Professor Guimarães does indeed provide a new and interesting approach. It may be that his active work in the field of nuclear magnetic resonance in magnetic materials is responsible for this. Clearly, this book is written by a still active researcher. The researcher who is well known and respected by the magnetic community.
This short volume is intended to be an introduction to two fascinating subjects: magnetism of solids and nuclear magnetic resonance. On the whole, I think the author succeeds in his goal and his introduction is a good one to both subjects.
The book consists of three parts. Part I of the book, comprising about a half of the volume, deals with the analysis of the magnetic properties of solids. These topics are treated fully and with authority. A section dealing with magnetism of itinerant systems seems to be especially interesting. The next part deals with general considerations of hyperfine interactions in solids with special emphasis on metals.
The book ends with two chapters devoted to the problem of nuclear magnetic resonance and ferromagnetic resonance in magnetically ordered solids. This book seems to be appropriate not only for students and scientists working directly in the field. Since at present scientists from disciplines ranging from solid state physics to biology and even medicine are currently using various magnetic and resonance methods, this book will be very useful also for these readers.
The book is very well prepared. The text is supplemented with numerous exercises, solutions, and tables. There are also suggestions for further reading. I enjoyed reading Magnetism and Magnetic Resonance in Solids and will keep it in my personal library.
Henryk Szymczak