The 2017 Magnetism Roadmap

TLDR

The 2017 Magnetism Roadmap builds on the 2014 edition, incorporating new expert perspectives and reflecting a shifted research landscape that now includes industrial applications such as hard‑disk drives, energy‑related magnetic materials, and emerging technologies involving complex magnetic topologies. The article aims to provide a timely, updated roadmap that offers a novel perspective on key developments in magnetism, particularly the industrial applications and complex magnetic topologies highlighted by recent Nobel‑prize‑related research.

Abstract

Building upon the success and relevance of the 2014 Magnetism Roadmap, this 2017 Magnetism Roadmap edition follows a similar general layout, even if its focus is naturally shifted, and a different group of experts and, thus, viewpoints are being collected and presented. More importantly, key developments have changed the research landscape in very relevant ways, so that a novel view onto some of the most crucial developments is warranted, and thus, this 2017 Magnetism Roadmap article is a timely endeavour. The change in landscape is hereby not exclusively scientific, but also reflects the magnetism related industrial application portfolio. Specifically, Hard Disk Drive technology, which still dominates digital storage and will continue to do so for many years, if not decades, has now limited its footprint in the scientific and research community, whereas significantly growing interest in magnetism and magnetic materials in relation to energy applications is noticeable, and other technological fields are emerging as well. Also, more and more work is occurring in which complex topologies of magnetically ordered states are being explored, hereby aiming at a technological utilization of the very theoretical concepts that were recognised by the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics.