I completed my PhD in Physics at the University of Aveiro in December 2009, and have dedicated most of my scientific career to the study of magnetism and magnetic materials. My main focus or research during my MSc. and PhD. was on magnetocaloric materials for magnetic refrigeration applications. Recently I've started to study rare-earth free permanent magnets, by optimizing their composition and production through nanostructuring techniques, in a combined effort with the use of theoretical tools such as Density Functional Theory and Ising/Heisenberg models.
I'm currently a post-doctoral researcher at CICECO and Physics Dept. at the University of Aveiro, and IFIMUP-IN (Institute of Nanotechnology) Porto, as well as an invited researcher at the EXSS group at Imperial College London. I've published 38 papers in ISI-indexed peer-reviewed international scientific journals and 19 oral presentations in international conferences and meetings (2 invited). I'm currently supervising 3 PhD students (1 co-supervision) and a MsC. student, in Physics and Physics Engineering courses at Universidade de Aveiro.
"Magnetovolume Effects in Heusler Compounds via First-Principles Calculations", J. N. Gonçalves, J. S. Amaral and V. S. Amaral, IEEE Trans. Magn. 50 1301104 (2014) [DOI].
"Thermodynamics of the 2D Ising model from a random path sampling method", J. S. Amaral, J. N. Gonçalves and V. S. Amaral, IEEE Trans. Magn. 50 1002204 (2014) [DOI].
"Disorder effects in giant magnetocaloric materials", J. S. Amaral and V. S. Amaral; Phys. Stat. Sol. A 211 971 (2014) [DOI].
"Strain induced enhanced ferromagnetic behavior in inhomogeneous low doped La0.95Sr0.05MnO3+delta", S. Das, J. S. Amaral, et al.; Appl. Phys. Lett. 102 112408 (2013) [DOI].
"On the Curie temperature dependency of the Magnetocaloric effect", J. H. Belo, J. S. Amaral, et al.; Appl. Phys. Lett. 100 242407 (2012) [DOI].
"Handling mixed-state magnetization data for magnetocaloric studies - a solution to achieve realistic entropy behaviour", S. Das, J. S. Amaral, V. S. Amaral; J. Phys. D Appl. Phys. 43 152002 (2010) [DOI].
"On estimating the magnetocaloric effect from magnetization measurements", J. S. Amaral, V. S. Amaral; J. Magn. Magn. Mat. 322 1552 (2009) [DOI].
"The effect of magnetic irreversibility on estimating the magnetocaloric effect from magnetization measurements", J. S. Amaral, V. S. Amaral; Appl. Phys. Lett. 94 042506 (2009) [DOI].
"The effect of chemical distribution on the magnetocaloric effect: A case study in second-order phase transition manganites", J. S. Amaral, P. B. Tavares, et al., Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids 354 (47-51), 5301-5303 (2008) [DOI].
"A mean-field scaling method for first- and second-order phase transition ferromagnets and its application in magnetocaloric studies", J. S. Amaral, N. J. O. Silva, V. S. Amaral; Appl. Phys. Lett. 91, 172503 (2007) [DOI].
"Magnetocaloric effect in Er and Eu-substituted ferromagnetic La-Sr Manganites", J. S. Amaral, M. S. Reis, et al.; J. Magn. Magn. Mat. 290 686 (2005) [DOI].
"Magnetoelastic Coupling Influence on the Magnetocaloric Effect in Ferromagnetic Materials", V. S. Amaral, J. S. Amaral; J. Magn. Magn. Mat 272, 2104 (2004) [DOI].
"The Mean-Field Theory in the Study of Ferromagnets and the Magnetocaloric Effect", J. S. Amaral, S. Das and V. S. Amaral, Chapter 8 of "Thermodynamics - Systems in Equilibrium and Non-Equilibrium", book edited by Juan Carlos Moreno-Piraján, Intech, ISBN 978-953-307-283-8 [Open Access].
Principal Investigator of the FCT Exploratory Research Project "Exploring nano-fabrication methods of high coercivity rare-earth free Si-Alnico permanent magnets" (EXPL/CTM-NAN/1614/2013) [more info at the FCT web page]
Task leader of the FCT SR&TD Project of consolidation of research skills and resources "Facing the challenges of characterizing novel thermal materials and processes (Heat@UA)" (RECI/CTM-CER/0336/2012).
Researcher ID ORCID Research Gate