Invited papers from ISAMMA 2010 (Sendai, Japan, 12-16 July 2010).

This cluster issue of Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics contains a collection of papers based on invited talks given at the 2nd International Symposium on Advanced Magnetic Materials and Applications 2010 (ISAMMA 2010) held from 12-16 July 2010 in Sendai, Japan. ISAMMA is the first consolidated symposium of three independent symposia held in the Asian region. ISPMM (International Symposium on Physics of Magnetic Materials) of Japan started in 1987 in Sendai, and was held six times: Beijing (1992), Seoul (1995), Sendai (1998), Taipei (2001) and Singapore (2005). ISAMT (International Symposium of Advanced Magnetic Technology) of Taiwan and SOMMA (International Symposium on Magnetic Materials and Applications) of Korea both began in 1999 and were each held five times up to 2005. ISAMMA was established as a new international symposium which will be held every three years in Asia. The concept of this unified international symposium was mainly led by Professor M Takahashi, Conference Chair of ISAMMA 2010. The first memorial symposium, ISAMMA 2007, was held in Jeju Island, Korea, during the period from 28 May to 1 June 2007. The main purpose and scope of ISAMMA is to provide an opportunity for scientists and engineers from all over the world to meet in Asia to discuss recent advances in the study of magnetic materials and their physics, spin-related phenomena and materials. The categories of ISAMMA 2010 were: fundamental properties of magnetic materials; hard/soft magnetic materials and applications; spintronics materials and devices; structured materials; multi functional magnetic materials; spin dynamics and micromagnetics; magnetic storage; materials for applications (sensors, high-frequency, power, and bio/medical devices); magnetic imaging and characterization. The scientific programme began on Tuesday 13 July 2010 with the opening remark by the Symposium Chairman. The conference was attended by 511 participants from 23 countries, with about 40 per cent from overseas. The programme involved 4 plenary talks, 37 invited talks, 85 contributed talks and 352 posters. All submitted papers were reviewed in order to meet the standards of Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics and Journal of Physics: Conference Series. We are grateful to all participants for their valuable contributions and active discussions. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of 17 Japanese companies and 7 Japanese foundations. Invited papers from ISAMMA 2010 Contents Current status and recent topics of rare-earth permanent magnets S Sugimoto Alloying effect on the magnetic properties of RFeB-type bulk magnets H W Chang, C C Hsieh, J Y Gan, Y T Cheng, M F Shih and W C Chang Coercivity distributions in Nd-Fe-B sintered magnets produced by the grain boundary diffusion process H Nakamura, K Hirota, T Ohashi and T Minowa Recent progress in high Bs Fe-based nanocrystalline soft magnetic alloys M Ohta and Y Yoshizawa Electric-field effects on magnetic anisotropy in Pd/Fe/Pd(0 0 1) surface Shinya Haraguchi, Masahito Tsujikawa, Junpei Gotou and Tatsuki Oda Gate modulation of spin precession in a semiconductor channel Hyun Cheol Koo, Jae Hyun Kwon, Jonghwa Eom, Joonyeon Chang, Suk Hee Han and Mark Johnson Ferromagnetic resonance of epitaxial Fe nanodots grown on MgO measured using coplanar waveguides M Mizuguchi and K Takanashi Switching phase diagrams of current-induced magnetization switching in asymmetric MgO-based magnetic tunnel junctions Seung-Young Park, Jae-Ho Han, Se-Chung Oh, Jang-Eun Lee, Kyung-Tae Nam, Hyun-Woo Lee, Younghun Jo and Kyung-Jin Lee Temperature dependence of spin-dependent transport properties of Co2MnSi-based current-perpendicular-to-plane magnetoresistive devices Y Sakuraba, K Izumi, S Bosu, K Saito and K Takanashi Adsorbate-induced spin-polarization enhancement of Fe3O4(0 0 1) A Pratt, M Kurahashi, X Sun and Y Yamauchi Antiferromagnetic coupling between spinel ferrite and a-Fe layers in Fe3-dO4/MgO/Fe(0 0 1) epitaxial films Hideto Yanagihara, Yuta Toyoda and Eiji Kita Monte Carlo simulations of the magnetocaloric effect in magnetic Ni-Mn-X (X = Ga, In) Heusler alloys V D Buchelnikov, V V Sokolovskiy, S V Taskaev, V V Khovaylo, A A Aliev, L N Khanov, A B Batdalov, P Entel, H Miki and T Takagi Changes in electronic states and magnetic free energy in La1[?]zCez(FexSi1[?]x)13 magnetic refrigerants A Fujita, S Fujieda and K Fukamichi Garnet composite films with Au particles fabricated by repetitive formation for enhancement of Faraday effect H Uchida, Y Mizutani, Y Nakai, A A Fedyanin and M Inoue Control of magnetic domain wall displacement using spin current in small in-plane magnetic field in Permalloy nanowires Yoshihiko Togawa, Takashi Kimura, Ken Harada, Akira Tonomura and Yoshichika Otani Magnetic-field tunable transmittance in a ferrofluid-filled silicon nitride photonic crystal slab H M Lee, L Horng and J C Wu Evaluation of a miniature magnetostrictive actuator using Galfenol under tensile stress Toshiyuki Ueno, Hidemitsu Miura and Sotoshi Yamada Sub-nm resolution depth profiling of the magnetic structure of thin films by the depth-resolved x-ray magnetic circular dichroism technique K Amemiya and M Sakamaki [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]