Focus Issue: Journal of Materials Research

Soft Magnetic Materials: Synthesis, Characterization, and Applications

August 2018
Submission deadline: January 1, 2018

A push for greater efficiency and decreased size in power electronics and electrical machines demands higher performing soft magnetic materials. In order to be competitive, advanced soft magnetic materials must be affordable and their production volume needs to meet the anticipated demand. This drive for higher efficiency and diminished size, weight, and power (SWaP) is fueled in part by the development and adoption of wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductors. WBG devices enable very fast switching (1 kHz to as high as 10 MHz), high voltage operation, and high temperature operation in both power electronics and electrical machine drives. Researchers in the field of soft magnetics must rise to this challenge and create soft magnetic materials with high magnetic flux densities and low electrical losses, while also improving the theoretical assessment of magnetic behavior and energy losses, at these elevated switching frequencies.

This JMR Focus Issue will include the latest research on soft magnetic materials for next-generation power electronics, as well as in electrical machines, and coverage of advanced characterization techniques that will be vital to understanding both the nanostructure and dynamical properties in soft magnetic materials. This behavior of soft magnets on small length and short time scales will ultimately govern their behavior in inductors, transformers, motors, and generators. 

Contributed articles are sought in the following areas:

• New bulk and composite soft magnetic materials
• Developments in the synthesis and fabrication of soft magnetic materials
• Advanced characterization techniques relevant to soft magnets
• Implementation of soft magnetic materials in power electronics and electrical machines
• Modeling and simulation of soft magnetic materials
• Overviews of the field of soft magnetic materials
• Perspectives on future opportunities in the field of soft magnetics

GUEST EDITORS

Todd Monson, Sandia National Laboratories, USA
Josefina Silveyra, Universidad de Buenos Aires and Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Argentina
Enzo Ferrara, Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica–INRIM, Italy
Mitra Taheri, Drexel University, USA
Torbjörn Thiringer, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden

MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION

To be considered for this issue, new and previously unpublished results significant to the development of this field should be presented. The manuscripts must be submitted via the JMR electronic submission system by January 1, 2018. Manuscripts submitted after this deadline will not be considered for the issue due to time constraints on the review process. Please select “Focus issue: Soft Magnetic Materials: Synthesis, Characterization, and Applications” as the manuscript type. Note our manuscript submission minimum length of 6000 words, with a maximum of 6-8 figures. Review articles must be pre-approved by proposal to the Editor-in-Chief. The proposal form and author instructions may be found at www.mrs.org/jmr-instructions. All manuscripts will be reviewed in a normal but expedited fashion. Papers submitted by the deadline and subsequently accepted will be published in the Focus Issue. Other manuscripts that are acceptable but cannot be included in the issue will be scheduled for publication in a subsequent issue of JMR.

Please contact jmr@mrs.org for any questions