Giant magnetoimpedance: concepts and recent progress

The giant magnetoimpedance effect (GMI) consists in drastic changes of the complex impedance of soft magnetic materials upon the application of an external magnetic field. The GMI effect is strongly dependent on the frequency of the applied current and the magnetic anisotropies present in the material, among other factors, which spawn a number of interesting new magnetic phenomena. In this context, one can roughly separate the research on GMI into approximately three aspects: (i) theory; (ii) applications and (iii) as a tool to investigate other magnetic parameters. In this work, an updated review of all these aspects is given. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.