Magnetic multilayers is a rapidly growing and multidisciplinary field of research. The purpose of this book is to give a unified overview of recent progress, giving special emphasis to the most important industrial applications. A general introduction is followed by six chapters that describe a wide range of physical aspects, together with experimental and theoretical methods. Scientists and students alike will benefit from the comprehensive discussion of numerous devices and their physics. As the technology matures, these devices, for example spin valves and magnetic random access memories, are likely to become widely used. 1 Introduction.- 2 Progress in Magnetooptical Data Storage.- 3 Layered Magnetic Structures: Interlayer Exchange Coupling and Giant Magnetresistance.- 4 Giant Magnetoresistance in Exchange-Biased Spin-Valve Layered Structures and its Application in Read Heads.- 5 Experiments on the Perpendicular Giant Magnetoresistancein Magnetic Multilayers.- 6 Physics of and Methods for Studying Metallic Multilayers with Interlayer Exchange Coupling and GMR Response.- 7 Nonlinear Magnetooptics for Magnetic Thin Films. Prof. Dr. Uwe Hartmann hat seit 1993 den Lehrstuhl für Nanostrukturforschung in der Fachrichtung Experimentalphysik der Universität des Saarlandes inne. 1998 erhielt er für seine Arbeiten in der Nanostrukturforschung den Philip Morris-Forschungspreis. 2006 wurde er zum Honorarprofessor an der Fudan-Universität in Shanghai ernannt.
