Dr. Manaf is an expert and active researcher in the field of magnetism for permanent magnet applications. Recently, he has extended his interest to include the application of soft magnetic materials for radar absorbers.

One of the significant breakthrough in Dr. Manaf’s research works is his report on the New nanocrystalline high-remanence Nd-Fe-B alloys by rapid solidification, that was published in Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 128, 302–306 (1993). The very strong enhancement of remanent magnetization results from the grain exchange coupling effect due to nanostructure development during the rapid solidification process by melt-spinning technique. This finding was obtained through a systematic investigation of the effects of grain refinement into the nanocrystalline regime in enhancing the remanence and maximum energy product, (BH)max performed for Nd-Fe-B materials with small silicon additions. This was then extended to ternary low Nd near-stoichiometric alloys, and eventually the effect was shown to be general, provided that the grains are magnetically coupled. His discovery is believed to be highly significant from the fundamental and technological viewpoints. Scientifically, he demonstrated that the nanostructure in magnetic materials that promotes grain interaction lead to remanent magnetization above the theoretical value based on Stoner and Wohlfarth, SW theory. This was apparently in contravention of the theory which states that, for randomly oriented, non-interacting magnetic particles having uniaxial anisotropy, the ratio of remanent to saturation magnetization less than or equal to 0.5. His description to this phenomenon was initially disbelieved by magnetic “community” though, subsequently, similar behaviour was also reported by a research group of Phillips for a very low Nd containing alloys. The effects have now been widely accepted since more research groups of both experimental and theoretical have confirmed these results. Technologically, materials with nanostructures are commercially very attractive since, provided the nanocrystalline structures are equivalent to that described in Dr. Manaf’s report on Ne-Fe-B, remanence enhancements can be achieved by overquenching and annealing so that materials can be produced in bulk for polymer-bonded magnets.

Dr. Azwar Manaf is the author and co-author of more than 20 internationally published papers regarding magnetic materials alone. He is also the holder of European Patent No. EP 0650 634 B1, Assignee : University of Sheffield, “Magnetic Materials and Methods of Making Them”  published on 27/3/1996. It is also noticed that at the international scientific meetings on magnetic materials as well as scientific papers in international journals related to magnetic materials, many researchers have cited Dr. Manaf’s research works in their references. He was also awarded a Brunton Medal by the University of Sheffield United Kingdom for his excellent research works in 1992. Universitas Indonesia has also awarded him certificates/prizes as Peneliti Muda Berprestasi of FMIPA, Univ. Indonesia in 1995 and the best senior researcher of Universitas Indonesia in 2001.  See his CV at http://matsci.fisika.ui.ac.id/lecturer/azwar.htm for details.