The field of electric and magnetic ceramics, the main subject of investigations of the participants of the Electric and Magnetic Ceramics Symposium (EMC) of the Seventh International Congress on Ceramics (ICC7), held from June 17 to 21, 2018 in Iguassu Falls, Brazil, spreads for several cross-disciplinary areas of deep scientific and technological interest. In this Symposium, the progress in electric and magnetic ceramics (ferroelectrics, piezoelectrics, (anti)ferromagnetics, magnetoelectrics, etc) was discussed by physicists, chemists and materials science scientists from universities and industries, always taking in mind the multidisciplinary nature of the subjects and issues related to basic principles, materials processing, characterization techniques and technological applications of this fascinating kind of materials. All EMC-ICC7 participants were encouraged to present novelties, and original contributions addressed to the state-of-art in their respective fields and to collaborate with this Special Journal Ferroelectrics Issue. A special group of international scientists presented invited Talks in the EMC Symposium, presenting the status and forward-looking views on his fields. This Special Issue captures this spirit through a number of selected research papers whose main embodied themes are:
Dielectric and Ferroelectric Thin Films
Crystals, Ceramics and Composites Processing and Characterization
Ferroelectrics, Relaxors and Multiferroics
Theory, Modeling and Simulations
The specific articles included in this special peer reviewed Issue of Journal Ferroelectrics cover experimental and theoretical aspects of fundamentals of electric and magnetic ceramics, focusing their impact in Materials Science, structure-property relationships, modeling and device fabrication approaches, and experimental and synthesis aspects or protocols related to the Materials Physics and Chemistry phenomena involved in the development and understanding of this multidisciplinary field.
The Guest Editors of this issue provided their critical review and are very much in agreement with the development of this growing field. They continue to envision a very strong imprint of the research in Electric and Magnetic Ceramics in the near future, which is likely to encompass the major interdisciplinary research focused mainly in cross-related phenomena, as those observed in multiferroic and bioferroic materials. Their views are based on the growing reports in the recent years and are of the opinion that these cross-correlated phenomena are still stronger at the nanoscale, where they can be exploited for novel technologically advanced applications. It is worth mentioning that the attendees on this Symposium are looking forward to the growth of this field through the continued successful international collaboration in Electric and Magnetic Ceramics.
We are grateful for the support of the International Ceramic Federation, the Brazilian Ceramic Society, the Brazilian funding agencies FAPESP, CAPES and CNPq, and Taylor & Francis Group to organize, host, finance and put forward this Special Issue to cover the scientific themes discussed and exploited in the Electric and Magnetic Ceramics Symposium of the Seventh International Ceramics Congress.