Oxides: Their Properties and Uses

Oxides are a wide class of materials exhibiting a variety of properties such as magnetic, dielectric, photocatalytic, and optical, which makes them potentially useful materials in many applications. We start the discussion on perovskite-based materials and most of the exciting new results have been on the thin film forms of these perovskite oxides. The chapter also discusses the developments in some perovskite-related structures like Ruddlesden-Popper structures, brownmillerites, and Aurivillius phases. Magnetism in pyrochlores has been covered due to the enormous interest in the observation of magnetic monopoles in spin ice materials. The chapter concludes with the recent results in multiferroic properties of certain spinel oxides and some recent results in delafossite oxides. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.