HOME > Profile > HONO, Kazuhiro
- Address
- 305-0047 1-2-1 Sengen Tsukuba Ibaraki JAPAN [Access]
- Web Site
External affiliations
- Graduate School of Science and Technology, University of Tsukuba
Research
- Keywords
magnetic materials, neodymium magnet, permanent magnet, rare earth magnets, spintronic materials, atom probe tomography, microstructure of metals, magnesium alloys
Before he was appointed as the president in 2022, he had 27 year research career at NIMS, mainly worked on structure-property relationships of metallic materials, including aluminum alloy, magnesium alloy, steels and magnetic materials. In the past 20 years, he has led magnetic and spintronic materials research at NIMS, including rare-earth permanent magnets, nanocrystalline soft magnets, FePt-based heat-assisted recording media, and half-metallic Heusler alloys and their devices.
Early in his career, he pioneered atom probe field ion microscopy (APFIM) and later three-dimensional atom probe (3DAP) characterization of metallic nanostructures to elucidate structure-property relationships of various alloys with potential industrial applications. He also contributed to the early development of laser-assisted 3D atom probe and demonstrated successful 3DAP analysis of insulator materials using UV lasers. His atomistic characterizations of solute clusters and GP zones in aluminum alloys were pioneering at the time for the study of precipitation sequences at the atomic scale. Extending this research to magnesium alloys, his group developed high-strength heat treatable wrought magnesium alloys with excellent formability. He also pioneered the atomistic characterization of amorphous alloys and their crystallization processes, and the research that elucidated the crystallization mechanism of the amorphous Fe-Si-B-Nb-Cu alloy served as a guiding principle for the subsequent development of nanocrystalline soft magnetic materials.
In the past 20 years, he has vigorously pursued the multi-scale analysis of the microstructure of rare-earth permanent magnets through the complementary use of SEM/TEM/3DAP, and established a coercivity mechanism that overturns the conventional view. Based on this, Dr. Hono's group developed a grain boundary infiltration method using eutectic alloys that dramatically improves the coercivity of neodymium magnets without using Dy. In addition, systematic TEM studies of the nanostructures of FePt thin films led to the development of FePt-C nanogranular perpendicular thin films, which proved to be the prototype of industrialized FePt-X heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) media. His group has also made remarkable achievements in the search for half-metallic Heusler alloys and unprecedented high magnetoresistive performance has been demonstrated in CPP-GMR devices by atomic control of the Heusler FM/NM interfaces, which have attracted interest as potential magnetic sensor applications.
PublicationsNIMS affiliated publications since 2004.
Research papers
- Z.H. Kautsar, H. Sepehri-Amin, Xin Tang, N. Kulesh, T.T. Sasaki, T. Ohkubo, K. Hono. Heavy rare earth-free high resistivity and coercivity Nd-Fe-B hot-deformed magnet developed by Pr-Cu diffusion and CaF2-LiF eutectic addition. Journal of Alloys and Compounds. 1010 (2025) 177738 10.1016/j.jallcom.2024.177738 Open Access
- S. Isogami, Y. Sasaki, Y. Fan, Y. Kubota, J. Gadbois, K. Hono, Y.K. Takahashi. Thermal spin-torque heat-assisted magnetic recording. Acta Materialia. 286 (2025) 120743 10.1016/j.actamat.2025.120743 Open Access
- A.K. Srinithi, Xin Tang, H. Sepehri-Amin, T. Ohkubo, K. Hono. (Nd,Sm,La)-Fe-B-based hot-deformed magnets with excellent comprehensive properties for variable flux permanent magnet motors. Acta Materialia. 281 (2024) 120387 10.1016/j.actamat.2024.120387 Open Access
Books
- HONO, Kazuhiro, Suresh S. Babu. Atom-Probe Field Ion Microscopy. Physical Metallurgy, Fifth Edition. , 2014, 1453-1589. 10.1016/b978-0-444-53770-6.00015
- 宝野 和博, 本丸 諒. すごい!磁石. , 2015, 1-319.
Proceedings
- HONO, Kazuhiro. Microstructure and coercivity of Nd-Fe-B based permanent magnets. 日本磁気学会第163回研究会資料. (2008) 9-16
- Akira Uedono, Hideki Sakurai, Jun Uzuhashi, Tetsuo Narita, Kacper Sierakowski, Shoji Ishibashi, Shigefusa F. Chichibu, Michal Bockowski, Jun Suda, Tadakatsu Ohokubo, Nobuyuki Ikarashi, Kazuhiro Hono, Tetsu Kachi. Annealing properties of vacancy-type defects in ion implanted GaN during ultra-high-pressure annealing studied by using a monoenergetic positron beam. Gallium Nitride Materials and Devices XVIII. (2023) 10.1117/12.2646233
- B.-C. Suh, M.-Z. Bian, T. Nakata, T. T. Sasaki, S. Kamado, K. Hono. Alloy Design for the Development of Heat Treatable High Strength Mg Sheet Alloy with Excellent Room Temperature Formability. Magnesium Technology 2018. (2018) 373-377 10.1007/978-3-319-72332-7_58
Presentations
- LUO, Xuan, 中津川 勲, SASAKI, Taisuke, LI, Zehao, 中田 大貴, Bian Ming-Zhe, 千野 靖正, 鎌土 重晴, HONO, Kazuhiro. Microstructure and alloy design to achieve excellent formability, strength and mechanical anisotropy in bake-hardenable magnesium alloy sheets. TMS 2025 Annual Meeting & Exhibition. 2025
- LI, Zehao, SAHA, Mainak, UEJI, Rintaro, KIMURA, Yuuji, SHIBATA, Akinobu, OHKUBO, Tadakatsu, HONO, Kazuhiro, SASAKI, Taisuke. Identification of hydrogen trapping site in pearlitic steel by atom probe tomography. 15th International Symposium on Atomic Level Characterizations for New Materials and Devices '24. 2024
- LUO, Xuan, SASAKI, Taisuke, LI, Zehao, 中田 大貴, 塚田 祐貴, 小山 敏幸, 鎌土 重晴, HONO, Kazuhiro. Multi-scale microstructural control toward development of bake-hardenable magnesium alloy sheets with excellent formability and strength. The 8th International Conference on Magnesium (ICM 8) & the 13th International Conference on Magnesium Alloys and their Applications (Mg 2024). 2024 Invited
Misc
- 宝野和博. 金属材料のナノ組織解析. 鉄鋼材料の進歩を支えるナノテクノロジー. (2004) 19-29
- 佐々木 泰祐, 宝野 和博. 優れた室温成形性を示す高強度マグネシウム合金板材の開発. アルトピア. 48 [2] (2018) 14-20
- Christopher A. Schuh, Kazuhiro Hono, William R. Wagner, Baptiste Gault, Joseph D'Angelo, George T. Gray. Paths to open access: An update from Acta Materialia, Inc.. Acta Materialia. (2017) 261-262 10.1016/j.actamat.2017.08.060
Published patent applications
Society memberships
TMS, IEEE Magnetics Society, Japan Institute for Metals, Japan Institute for Light Metals, Applied Physics Society of Japan
Awards
- 2024 Acta Materialia Gold Medal (2024)
- Medal with Purple Ribbon (2024)
- Magnetics Society of Japan Award (2022)
- Tsukuba Encouragement Prize (Research for Practical Use) (2022)
- Honda Memorial Award, the Honda Memorial Foundation (2020)
- The Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Research Category (2020)
- Murakami Memorial Award, the Japan Institute of Metals (2019)
- 2018REPM Distinguished Achievement Award (2018)
- 27th Tsukuba Award, Ibaraki Prefecture (2016)
- IFES Fellow (The International Field Emission Society) (2016)
- IEEE Magnetic Society Distinguished Lecturer (2015)
- Japan Institute of Metals Hakaru Hasumoto Award (2014)
- The Magnetic Society of Japan, Achievement Award (2013)
- Honorary Membership of the Indian Institute of Metals (2013)
- TMS Life Time Membership (2012)
- TMS Fellow Award (2011)
- The Japan Institute of Metals Distinguished Achievement Award (2011)
- 6th Honda Frontier Award (2009)
- Magnetic Society of Japan Outstanding Research Award (2008)
- Light Metal Advancement Award (2003)
- The Japan Institute of Metals Meritorious Honor Award (1997)
- Tsukuba Encouragement Prize, Ibaraki Prefecture (1997)
- The Acta Metallurgica et Materialia Best Paper Award for 1992 (1994)
- Japan Institute of Metals Young Scientists Encouragement Award (1992)
- Murakami Memorial Research Promotion Award for Young Scientists (1992)
- Light Metals Research Promotion Award, the Japan Institute of Light Metals (1991)
- Honda Memorial Research Promotion Award for Young Scientists (1991)