ABSTRACT
Up to this point we have placed much emphasis on systems where the largest amount of property data and behavior characteristics has been acquired. This has for the most part dealt with metal matrix composites of interest to the aerospace community. In trying to assess the future technological impact of these new materials, however, it is prudent to look beyond the rather narrow confines of the aerospace propulsion and structural interests and concepts for a larger view of potential applications. Mention has been made, for example, of the possible uses of eutectic composites in electrical devices. The InSb-NiSb system was mentioned as one in which needles of NiSb of high electrical conductivity act as finely dispersed metallic inclusions in a semiconducting matrix of InSb which permits large thermo-magnetic and galvanomagnetic effects. In an aligned eutectic of InSb-NiSb, one has a magnetoresistive device with important applications in a field plate (attached to an insulating surface substrate as a variable shaped 25 μm thick eutectic layer). These applications according to Weiss 203 include
