Job vacancies

Magnetic ceramics have been attracting considerable interest due to their wide range of applications. These span the whole field of magnetic screening, magnetic data storage, chokes, sensors and devices based on magnetoelectric coupling in multiferroic materials. Demand from the electronic industry for thick and thin film magnetic ceramics has dramatically increased, and novel designs based on the availability of 2D magnetic structures are continuously being developed.The main drawback in the production of magnetic items from magnetic ceramics powder is the need for a high temperature sintering step, which must be performed at several hundred °C. While bulk-form magnetic ceramics pose no problems, ceramic films need to be supported on a structural substrate. Since the main cause of film failure is film spalling during sintering due to mismatched thermal dilation coefficients, film bonding can hardly occur on any standardized substrate irrespective of film composition. Lower sintering temperatures reduce the extent of the interfacial stresses caused by thermal mismatch, although physical constraints are there that cannot be overcome. However, it is known that nanosized ceramic particles can be sintered at lower temperatures compared to coarser ones, and allow the fabrication of thinner films. Synthesis of nanoparticles in polyols is a simple and convenient chemical route for producing highly stable suspensions of oxidic nanoparticles and magnetic oxides that can then be sintered at lower temperatures.

More details here.