Magnetoplastic effects in solids

This paper is an overview of the studies into the effect of weak magnetic fields on the structure and mechanical properties of nonmagnetic solids of various nature (ionic, covalent, molecular, and metallic crystals, polymers, etc.). The various effects and aftereffects initiated by static, pulsed, and microwave magnetic fields that have been discovered over the past 15 years are classified and critically analyzed. The thermodynamic and kinetic aspects of the magnetic-field sensitivity of real solids with structural defects containing paramagnetic centers (electrons, holes, radicals, excitons, etc.) are discussed. Possible mechanisms for the effect of a weak magnetic field on the defect structure of crystals are considered. Special attention is given to the most developed chemical-physical theory of spin-dependent reactions between mobile particles and unpaired electrons. Interpretation of magnetoplastic effects is proposed in terms of the spin, electron, molecular, and dislocation dynamics of the complex multistage processes initiated by a magnetic field in a system of metastable structural defects.