Volume 10 of the Handbook is composed of topical review articles written by leading authorities. In each of these articles an extensive description is given in graphical as well as in tabular form, much emphasis being placed on the discussion of the experimental material in the framework of physics, chemistry and materials science. Of all the new superconducting materials investigated having a more than three times highter transition temperature, the cuprates are the most prominent. Although originally intended as novel superconducting compounds, these materials have opened a new field of magnetism that permits detailed studies of the propagation of magnetic order as a function of separation and crystallographic orientation as well as studies of the interplay of strain and magnetic properties. Chapter one presents a detailed account of acheivements in this field.
Further chapters report on the progress being made in research areas that have been dealt with in previous volumes of the Handbook. These include the group of soft magnetic materials in which supplementary results dealing with nanocrystalline alloys are highlighted; the magnetic properties of intermetallic compounds in which rare earth elements are combined with nonmagnetic elements; progress in the development in hard magnetic materials, with the emphasis on novel developments in the manufacturing routes and the physical principles on which these new developments are based.