Ulbricht, R: Europium Oxide Thin-Films

A material of choice often defines an historical era. The Stone Age and the Bronze Age are examples of this. In modern times, nearly all materials have been revolutionized. Advances in one field have led to advances in others with many previously disparate fields overlapping as fundamental understanding increases and deep commonalities are found. In many ways, materials science is a melting pot of academic disciplines like chemistry, thermodynamics and solid-state physics. A large portion of materials science focuses on the solid state where the arrangement of atoms and the interaction of their electrons lead to a myriad of intricate physical properties. Besides glass and some polymers, solids typically take a crystalline form where atoms are arranged with periodic uniformity. It is often in crystals where the most pronounced and interesting properties arise. One such system of tremendous potential is the EuO crystal, which is the focus of this book.