Frontispiece: Materials with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy for magnetic random access memory (Phys. Status Solidi RRL 12/2011)

This on "Spintronics and Spin Physics" aims at taking as napshot of ongoing diverse and highlevel spin physics and nanomagnetism research trends.Spintronics has long achieved real-world application in hard-disk drives, and yet the topic literally got an ew spin after the discovery of the spin-transfer torque effect which led to ar evival of research on magnetic random access memories (MRAMs), magnetic logic devices, domain wall memories, etc.In their Review@RRL (pp.413-419), R. Sbiaa, H. Meng, and S. N. Piramanayagam give an overview of the development of materials with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy that are crucial for MRAM and other spintronics applications.In particular,f or as pin-transfer torque MRAM design the five conflicting criteria of high signal, low resistance, high thermal stability, low writing current, and CMOS integration need to be met, the so-called MRAM pentalemma. Materials with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy for magnetic random access memory