About the book
Hysteresis phenomena manifest themselves with highly intriguing features that have been continuously attracting the interest of scientists and physicists who have attempted to unravel the origins and the underlying mechanisms. Hysteretic behaviour is ubiquitous to different physical systems, and despite displaying diversified characteristic elements depending on the specific context, hysteresis originates from the presence of several metastable energy minima, which relate to path-dependent and rate-dependent responses to various external stimuli. This is translated in a considerable number of experimentally observable events, such as hysteretic loops in ferroic media, Bauschinger effect in elastoplastic materials, characteristic magnetic hysteresis in superconductors, current-voltage hysteresis in various electronic devices, contact angle hysteresis in liquid-solid interfaces and bistability in cell biological processes, among others. Significant progress on understanding the mechanisms underpinning hysteresis in different systems has been made over the years and improved knowledge on how to tailor hysteretic materials behaviour for application purposes has been gained.
The present book aims at compiling the main achievements and novel discoveries in the field of hysteretic materials, with particular focus on the control of materials hysteresis characteristics for engineering applications. Experimental and theoretical investigations from macro- to nanoscale on ferromagnetic, ferroelectric, ferroelastic, multiferroic materials and electronic devices, including solar cells, energy storage devices, memristors and tunnelling junctions are particularly attractive for the present compilation.
