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Emperical Interference

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Modern Magnetic Systems

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Bioinspired Autonomous Miniature Robots

Dynamic Locomotion

Embodied Vision

Human Aspects of Machine Learning

Intelligent Control Systems

Learning and Dynamical Systems

Locomotion in Biorobotic and Somatic Systems

Micro, Nano, and Molecular Systems

Movement Generation and Control

Neural Capture and Synthesis

Physics for Inference and Optimization

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2022

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Theory of Inhomogeneous Condensed Matter Conference Paper Diffusion of gold in germanium Strohm, A., Matics, S., Frank, W. In Proceedings of DIMAT 2000, the Fifth International Conference on Diffusion in Materials, 194/199:629-634, Defect and Diffusion Forum, Scitech Publ. Ltd., Paris, France, 2001 BibTeX

Theory of Inhomogeneous Condensed Matter Conference Paper Diffusion of gold in the amorphous ceramic Si28C36N36 Matics, S., Frank, W. In Proceedings of DIMAT 2000, the Fifth International Conference on Diffusion in Materials, 194/199:947-952, Diffusion and Defect Forum, Scitec Publications Ltd., Paris, France, 2001 BibTeX

Theory of Inhomogeneous Condensed Matter Conference Paper Diffusion of implanted 195Au radiotracer atoms in amorphous silicon under irradiation with 1 MeV-N+ ions Voss, T., Scharwaechter, P., Frank, W. In Proceedings of DIMAT 2000, the Fifth International Conference on Diffusion in Materials, 194/199:659-665, Defect and Diffusion Forum, Scitec Publications Ltd., Paris, France, 2001 BibTeX

Materials Article Epitaxial growth of metals on (100) SrTiO3: The influence of lattice mismatch and reactivity Wagner, T., Polli, A. D., Richter, G., Stanzick, H. Zeitschrift Fur Metallkunde, 92(7):701-706, 2001 BibTeX

Materials Article Epitaxy of Pd thin films on (100) SrTiO3: A three-step growth process Wagner, T., Richter, G., Ruhle, M. Journal of Applied Physics, 89(5):2606-2612, 2001 DOI BibTeX

Autonomous Motion Article Graph-matching vs. entropy-based methods for object detection Neural Networks, 14(3):345-354, 2001, clmc
Labeled Graph Matching (LGM) has been shown successful in numerous ob-ject vision tasks. This method is the basis for arguably the best face recognition system in the world. We present an algorithm for visual pattern recognition that is an extension of LGM ("LGM+"). We compare the performance of LGM and LGM+ algorithms with a state of the art statistical method based on Mutual Information Maximization (MIM). We present an adaptation of the MIM method for multi-dimensional Gabor wavelet features. The three pattern recognition methods were evaluated on an object detection task, using a set of stimuli on which none of the methods had been tested previously. The results indicate that while the performance of the MIM method operating upon Gabor wavelets is superior to the same method operating on pixels and to LGM, it is surpassed by LGM+. LGM+ offers a significant improvement in performance over LGM without losing LGMâ??s virtues of simplicity, biological plausibility, and a computational cost that is 2-3 orders of magnitude lower than that of the MIM algorithm. 
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Autonomous Motion Conference Paper Humanoid oculomotor control based on concepts of computational neuroscience Shibata, T., Vijayakumar, S., Conradt, J., Schaal, S. In Humanoids2001, Second IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots, 2001, clmc
Oculomotor control in a humanoid robot faces similar problems as biological oculomotor systems, i.e., the stabilization of gaze in face of unknown perturbations of the body, selective attention, the complexity of stereo vision and dealing with large information processing delays. In this paper, we suggest control circuits to realize three of the most basic oculomotor behaviors - the vestibulo-ocular and optokinetic reflex (VOR-OKR) for gaze stabilization, smooth pursuit for tracking moving objects, and saccades for overt visual attention. Each of these behaviors was derived from inspirations from computational neuroscience, which proves to be a viable strategy to explore novel control mechanisms for humanoid robotics. Our implementations on a humanoid robot demonstrate good performance of the oculomotor behaviors that appears natural and human-like.
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Micro, Nano, and Molecular Systems Article Isotropic second-order nonlinear optical susceptibilities Fischer, P., Buckingham, A., Albrecht, A. PHYSICAL REVIEW A, 64(5), 2001
The second-order nonlinear optical susceptibility, in the electric dipole approximation, is only nonvanishing for materials that are noncentrosymmetric. Should the medium be isotropic, then only a chiral system. such as an optically active liquid, satisfies this symmetry requirement. We derive the quantum-mechanical form of the isotropic component of the sum- and difference-frequency susceptibility and discuss its unusual spectral properties. We show that any coherent second-order nonlinear optical process in a system of randomly oriented molecules requires the medium to be chiral. and the incident frequencies to be different and nonzero. Furthermore, a minimum of two nondegenerate excited molecular states are needed for the isotropic part of the susceptibility to be nonvanishing. The rotationally invariant susceptibility is zero in the static field limit and shows exceptionally sensitive resonance and dephasing effects that are particular to chiral centers.
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Autonomous Motion Conference Paper Learning inverse kinematics D’Souza, A., Vijayakumar, S., Schaal, S. In IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2001), Piscataway, NJ: IEEE, Maui, Hawaii, Oct.29-Nov.3, 2001, clmc
Real-time control of the endeffector of a humanoid robot in external coordinates requires computationally efficient solutions of the inverse kinematics problem. In this context, this paper investigates learning of inverse kinematics for resolved motion rate control (RMRC) employing an optimization criterion to resolve kinematic redundancies. Our learning approach is based on the key observations that learning an inverse of a non uniquely invertible function can be accomplished by augmenting the input representation to the inverse model and by using a spatially localized learning approach. We apply this strategy to inverse kinematics learning and demonstrate how a recently developed statistical learning algorithm, Locally Weighted Projection Regression, allows efficient learning of inverse kinematic mappings in an incremental fashion even when input spaces become rather high dimensional. The resulting performance of the inverse kinematics is comparable to Liegeois ([1]) analytical pseudo inverse with optimization. Our results are illustrated with a 30 degree-of-freedom humanoid robot.
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Physical Intelligence Conference Paper Man-machine interface for micro/nano manipulation with an afm probe Aruk, B., Hashimoto, H., Sitti, M. In Nanotechnology, 2001. IEEE-NANO 2001. Proceedings of the 2001 1st IEEE Conference on, 151-156, 2001 BibTeX

Empirical Inference Article Markovian domain fingerprinting: statistical segmentation of protein sequences Bejerano, G., Seldin, Y., Margalit, H., Tishby, N. Bioinformatics, 17(10):927-934, 2001 PDF Web BibTeX

Theory of Inhomogeneous Condensed Matter Article Morphological fluctuations of large-scale structure: The PSCz survey Kerscher, M., Mecke, K., Schmalzing, J., Beisbart, C., Buchert, T., Wagner, H. Astronomy \& Astrophysics, 373(1):1-11, 2001 BibTeX

Physical Intelligence Conference Paper Nanotribological characterization system by AFM based controlled pushing Sitti, M. In Nanotechnology, 2001. IEEE-NANO 2001. Proceedings of the 2001 1st IEEE Conference on, 99-104, 2001 BibTeX

Theory of Inhomogeneous Condensed Matter Article Non-Gaussian morphology on large scales: Minkowski functionals of the REFLEX cluster catalogue Kerscher, M., Mecke, K., Schuecker, P., Böhringer, H., Guzzo, L., Collins, C. A., Schindler, S., De Grandi, S., Cruddace, R. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 377(1):1-16, 2001 BibTeX

Autonomous Motion Article Origins and violations of the 2/3 power law in rhythmic 3D movements Schaal, S., Sternad, D. Experimental Brain Research, 136:60-72, 2001, clmc
The 2/3 power law, the nonlinear relationship between tangential velocity and radius of curvature of the endeffector trajectory, has been suggested as a fundamental constraint of the central nervous system in the formation of rhythmic endpoint trajectories. However, studies on the 2/3 power law have largely been confined to planar drawing patterns of relatively small size. With the hypothesis that this strategy overlooks nonlinear effects that are constitutive in movement generation, the present experiments tested the validity of the power law in elliptical patterns which were not confined to a planar surface and which were performed by the unconstrained 7-DOF arm with significant variations in pattern size and workspace orientation. Data were recorded from five human subjects where the seven joint angles and the endpoint trajectories were analyzed. Additionally, an anthropomorphic 7-DOF robot arm served as a "control subject" whose endpoint trajectories were generated on the basis of the human joint angle data, modeled as simple harmonic oscillations. Analyses of the endpoint trajectories demonstrate that the power law is systematically violated with increasing pattern size, in both exponent and the goodness of fit. The origins of these violations can be explained analytically based on smooth rhythmic trajectory formation and the kinematic structure of the human arm. We conclude that in unconstrained rhythmic movements, the power law seems to be a by-product of a movement system that favors smooth trajectories, and that it is unlikely to serve as a primary movement generating principle. Our data rather suggests that subjects employed smooth oscillatory pattern generators in joint space to realize the required movement patterns.
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Autonomous Motion Conference Paper Overt visual attention for a humanoid robot Vijayakumar, S., Conradt, J., Shibata, T., Schaal, S. In IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2001), 2001, clmc
The goal of our research is to investigate the interplay between oculomotor control, visual processing, and limb control in humans and primates by exploring the computational issues of these processes with a biologically inspired artificial oculomotor system on an anthropomorphic robot. In this paper, we investigate the computational mechanisms for visual attention in such a system. Stimuli in the environment excite a dynamical neural network that implements a saliency map, i.e., a winner-take-all competition between stimuli while simultenously smoothing out noise and suppressing irrelevant inputs. In real-time, this system computes new targets for the shift of gaze, executed by the head-eye system of the robot. The redundant degrees-of- freedom of the head-eye system are resolved through a learned inverse kinematics with optimization criterion. We also address important issues how to ensure that the coordinate system of the saliency map remains correct after movement of the robot. The presented attention system is built on principled modules and generally applicable for any sensory modality.
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Physical Intelligence Conference Paper PZT actuated four-bar mechanism with two flexible links for micromechanical flying insect thorax Sitti, M. In Robotics and Automation, 2001. Proceedings 2001 ICRA. IEEE International Conference on, 4:3893-3900, 2001 BibTeX

Theory of Inhomogeneous Condensed Matter Article Polydisperse fluid in contact with a semipermeable membrane Bryk, P., Patrykiejew, A., Sokolowski, S. Molecular Physics, 99(20):1709-1717, 2001 BibTeX

Theory of Inhomogeneous Condensed Matter Article Positron annihilation studies on the migration of deformation induced vacancies in stainless steel AISI 316 L Holzwarth, U., Barbieri, A., Hansen-Ilzhofer, S., Schaaff, P., Haaks, M. Applied Physics A-Materials Science \& Processing, 73(4):467-475, 2001 BibTeX

Autonomous Motion Conference Paper Real-time statistical learning for robotics and human augmentation Schaal, S., Vijayakumar, S., D’Souza, A., Ijspeert, A., Nakanishi, J. In International Symposium on Robotics Research, (Editors: Jarvis, R. A.;Zelinsky, A.), Lorne, Victoria, Austrialia Nov.9-12, 2001, clmc
Real-time modeling of complex nonlinear dynamic processes has become increasingly important in various areas of robotics and human augmentation. To address such problems, we have been developing special statistical learning methods that meet the demands of on-line learning, in particular the need for low computational complexity, rapid learning, and scalability to high-dimensional spaces. In this paper, we introduce a novel algorithm that possesses all the necessary properties by combining methods from probabilistic and nonparametric learning. We demonstrate the applicability of our methods for three different applications in humanoid robotics, i.e., the on-line learning of a full-body inverse dynamics model, an inverse kinematics model, and imitation learning. The latter application will also introduce a novel method to shape attractor landscapes of dynamical system by means of statis-tical learning.
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Micro, Nano, and Molecular Systems Article Reply to “Comment on ‘Phenomenological damping in optical response tensors’” Buckingham, A., Fischer, P. PHYSICAL REVIEW A, 63(4), 2001
We show that damping factors must not be incorporated in the perturbation of the ground state by a static electric field. If they are included, as in the theory of Stedman et al. {[}preceding Comment. Phys. Rev. A 63, 047801 (2001)], then there would be an electric dipole in the y direction induced in a hydrogen atom in the M-s = + 1/2 state by a static electric field in the x direction. Such a dipole is excluded by symmetry.
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Autonomous Motion Conference Paper Robust learning of arm trajectories through human demonstration Billard, A., Schaal, S. In IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2001), Piscataway, NJ: IEEE, Maui, Hawaii, Oct.29-Nov.3, 2001, clmc
We present a model, composed of hierarchy of artificial neural networks, for robot learning by demonstration. The model is implemented in a dynamic simulation of a 41 degrees of freedom humanoid for reproducing 3D human motion of the arm. Results show that the model requires few information about the desired trajectory and learns on-line the relevant features of movement. It can generalize across a small set of data to produce a qualitatively good reproduction of the demonstrated trajectory. Finally, it is shown that reproduction of the trajectory after learning is robust against perturbations.
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Theory of Inhomogeneous Condensed Matter Article Self-diffusion of 71Ge in Si-Ge Strohm, A., Voss, T., Frank, W., Raisanen, J., Dietrich, M. Physica B, 308:542-545, 2001 BibTeX

Physical Intelligence Conference Paper Survey of nanomanipulation systems Sitti, M. In Nanotechnology, 2001. IEEE-NANO 2001. Proceedings of the 2001 1st IEEE Conference on, 75-80, 2001 BibTeX

Autonomous Motion Article Synchronized robot drumming by neural oscillator Kotosaka, S., Schaal, S. Journal of the Robotics Society of Japan, 19(1):116-123, 2001, clmc
Sensory-motor integration is one of the key issues in robotics. In this paper, we propose an approach to rhythmic arm movement control that is synchronized with an external signal based on exploiting a simple neural oscillator network. Trajectory generation by the neural oscillator is a biologically inspired method that can allow us to generate a smooth and continuous trajectory. The parameter tuning of the oscillators is used to generate a synchronized movement with wide intervals. We adopted the method for the drumming task as an example task. By using this method, the robot can realize synchronized drumming with wide drumming intervals in real time. The paper also shows the experimental results of drumming by a humanoid robot.
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Empirical Inference Article The psychometric function: I. Fitting, sampling and goodness-of-fit Wichmann, F., Hill, N. Perception and Psychophysics, 63 (8):1293-1313, 2001
The psychometric function relates an observer'sperformance to an independent variable, usually some physical quantity of a stimulus in a psychophysical task. This paper, together with its companion paper (Wichmann & Hill, 2001), describes an integrated approach to (1) fitting psychometric functions, (2) assessing the goodness of fit, and (3) providing confidence intervals for the function'sparameters and other estimates derived from them, for the purposes of hypothesis testing. The present paper deals with the first two topics, describing a constrained maximum-likelihood method of parameter estimation and developing several goodness-of-fit tests. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we deal with two specific difficulties that arise when fitting functions to psychophysical data. First, we note that human observers are prone to stimulus-independent errors (or lapses ). We show that failure to account for this can lead to serious biases in estimates of the psychometric function'sparameters and illustrate how the problem may be overcome. Second, we note that psychophysical data sets are usually rather small by the standards required by most of the commonly applied statistical tests. We demonstrate the potential errors of applying traditional X^2 methods to psychophysical data and advocate use of Monte Carlo resampling techniques that do not rely on asymptotic theory. We have made available the software to implement our methods
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Physical Intelligence Conference Paper Thorax Design and Wing Control for a Micromechanical Flying Insect Yan, J., Ayadhanula, S., Sitti, M., Wood, R., Fearing, R. In PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL ALLERTON CONFERENCE ON COMMUNICATION CONTROL AND COMPUTING, 39(2):952-961, 2001 BibTeX

Physical Intelligence Conference Paper Towards flapping wing control for a micromechanical flying insect Yan, J., Wood, R. J., Avadhanula, S., Sitti, M., Fearing, R. S. In Robotics and Automation, 2001. Proceedings 2001 ICRA. IEEE International Conference on, 4:3901-3908, 2001 BibTeX

Autonomous Motion Conference Paper Trajectory formation for imitation with nonlinear dynamical systems Ijspeert, A., Nakanishi, J., Schaal, S. In IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2001), 752-757, Weilea, Hawaii, Oct.29-Nov.3, 2001, clmc
This article explores a new approach to learning by imitation and trajectory formation by representing movements as mixtures of nonlinear differential equations with well-defined attractor dynamics. An observed movement is approximated by finding a best fit of the mixture model to its data by a recursive least squares regression technique. In contrast to non-autonomous movement representations like splines, the resultant movement plan remains an autonomous set of nonlinear differential equations that forms a control policy which is robust to strong external perturbations and that can be modified by additional perceptual variables. This movement policy remains the same for a given target, regardless of the initial conditions, and can easily be re-used for new targets. We evaluate the trajectory formation system (TFS) in the context of a humanoid robot simulation that is part of the Virtual Trainer (VT) project, which aims at supervising rehabilitation exercises in stroke-patients. A typical rehabilitation exercise was collected with a Sarcos Sensuit, a device to record joint angular movement from human subjects, and approximated and reproduced with our imitation techniques. Our results demonstrate that multi-joint human movements can be encoded successfully, and that this system allows robust modifications of the movement policy through external variables.
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Empirical Inference Conference Paper Unsupervised Segmentation and Classification of Mixtures of Markovian Sources Seldin, Y., Bejerano, G., Tishby, N. In The 33rd Symposium on the Interface of Computing Science and Statistics (Interface 2001 - Frontiers in Data Mining and Bioinformatics), 1-15, 33rd Symposium on the Interface of Computing Science and Statistics (Interface 2001 - Frontiers in Data Mining and Bioinformatics), 2001
We describe a novel algorithm for unsupervised segmentation of sequences into alternating Variable Memory Markov sources, first presented in [SBT01]. The algorithm is based on competitive learning between Markov models, when implemented as Prediction Suffix Trees [RST96] using the MDL principle. By applying a model clustering procedure, based on rate distortion theory combined with deterministic annealing, we obtain a hierarchical segmentation of sequences between alternating Markov sources. The method is applied successfully to unsupervised segmentation of multilingual texts into languages where it is able to infer correctly both the number of languages and the language switching points. When applied to protein sequence families (results of the [BSMT01] work), we demonstrate the method‘s ability to identify biologically meaningful sub-sequences within the proteins, which correspond to signatures of important functional sub-units called domains. Our approach to proteins classification (through the obtained signatures) is shown to have both conceptual and practical advantages over the currently used methods.
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Empirical Inference Conference Paper Unsupervised Sequence Segmentation by a Mixture of Switching Variable Memory Markov Sources Seldin, Y., Bejerano, G., Tishby, N. In In the proceeding of the 18th International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML 2001), 513-520, 18th International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML 2001), 2001
We present a novel information theoretic algorithm for unsupervised segmentation of sequences into alternating Variable Memory Markov sources. The algorithm is based on competitive learning between Markov models, when implemented as Prediction Suffix Trees (Ron et al., 1996) using the MDL principle. By applying a model clustering procedure, based on rate distortion theory combined with deterministic annealing, we obtain a hierarchical segmentation of sequences between alternating Markov sources. The algorithm seems to be self regulated and automatically avoids over segmentation. The method is applied successfully to unsupervised segmentation of multilingual texts into languages where it is able to infer correctly both the number of languages and the language switching points. When applied to protein sequence families, we demonstrate the method‘s ability to identify biologically meaningful sub-sequences within the proteins, which correspond to important functional sub-units called domains.
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Physical Intelligence Article Wing transmission for a micromechanical flying insect Yan, J., Avadhanula, S., Birch, J., Dickinson, M., Sitti, M., Su, T., Fearing, R. Journal of Micromechatronics, 1(3):221-237, Brill, 2001 BibTeX

Modern Magnetic Systems Article A full field transmission X-ray microscope as a tool for high-resolution magnetic imaging Denbeaux, G., Fischer, P., Kusinski, G., Le Gros, M., Pearson, A., Attwood, D. {IEEE Transactions on Magnetics}, 37:2764-2766, 2001 BibTeX

Modern Magnetic Systems Conference Paper AMOC studies of positronium in fine MgO powder van Waeyenberge, B., Dauwe, C., Stoll, H. In Positron Annihilation. Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Positron Annihilation, 363/365:401-403, Materials Science Forum, Trans Tech Publications Ltd., München, 2001 BibTeX

Modern Magnetic Systems Article Ab-initio statistical mechanics for the phase diagram of NiAl including the effect of vacancies Lechermann, F., Fähnle, M. {Physica Status Solidi B-Basic Research}, 224(2):R4-R6, 2001 BibTeX

Modern Magnetic Systems Conference Paper Atomic defects and electronic structure of B2-FeAl, CoAl and NiAl Fähnle, M., Meyer, B., Bester, G., Majer, J., Börnsen, N. In Proceedings of DIMAT 2000, the Fifth International Conference on Diffusion in Materials, 194/199:279-285, Defect and Diffusion Forum, Scitec Publications Ltd., Paris, France, 2001 BibTeX

Modern Magnetic Systems Article Atomic defects and electronic structure of B2FeAl, CoAl and NiAl Fähnle, M., Meyer, B., Bester, G., Majer, J., Börnsen, N. {Defect and Diffusion Forum}, 194-199:279-285, 2001 BibTeX

Modern Magnetic Systems Article Carbon nanostructures: an efficient hydrogen storage medium for fuel cells Atkinson, K., Roth, S., Hirscher, M., Grünwald, W. {Fuel Cells Bulletin}, 4(38):9-12, 2001 BibTeX

Modern Magnetic Systems Article Co(NH3)2Cl2 and Co(ND3)2Cl2: Order-Disorder Behaviour of N(H,D)3 and Antiferromagnetic Structure Leineweber, A., Jacobs, H., E\ssmann, P., Allenspach, F., Fauth, F., Fischer, P. {Zeitschrift f\"ur Anorganische und Allgemeine Chemie}, 627:2063-2069, 2001 BibTeX

Modern Magnetic Systems Article Compound formation and abrasion resistance of ion-implanted Ti6Al4V Schmidt, H., Schminke, A., Schmiedgen, M., Baretzky, B. {Acta Materialia}, 49(3):487-495, 2001 BibTeX

Modern Magnetic Systems Article Compound formation and abrasion resistance of ion-implanted Ti6Al4V Schmidt, H., Schminke, A., Schmiedgen, M., Baretzky, B. {Acta Materialia}, 49:487-495, 2001 BibTeX

Modern Magnetic Systems Conference Paper Computational micromagnetism of magnetic structures and magnetization processes in thin plantelets and small particles Kronmüller, H., Hertel, R. In Magnetic Storage Sstems Beyond 2000, 41:345-362, Nato Science Series II: Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Rhodos, Greece, 2001 BibTeX

Modern Magnetic Systems Article Critical magnetic properties of disordered Cr-rich FeCr alloys Fischer, S. F., Kaul, S. N., Kronmüller, H. {Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials}, 226(Sp. Iss. SI):540-541, 2001 BibTeX