Modern permanent magnetsare made of special alloys that have been found through research to createincreasingly better magnets. The most common families of magnet materials todayare ones made out of aluminum-nickel-cobalt (Alnico), strontium-iron (Ferrites,also known as Ferrites), neodymium-iron-boron (neo magnets, sometimes referredto as “supermagnets”), andsamarium-cobalt. (The samarium-cobalt and neodymium-iron-boron families arecollectively known as the Rare Earths).