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Department was founded in 1989 on the base of the corresponding Laboratory. The purpose of its creation was the formation of the scientific direction aiming at development of physical principles for design of engineering materials based on the interatomic interactions. 

The start of scientific research was concerned with the development of new prospective types of carbon steels, strengthened by cold work. The strain-induced decomposition of cementite caused by the interaction between carbon atoms and dislocations was studied in detail in relation to mechanical properties of the cold worked steel wire. (The monograph of Gavriljuk V.G. “The distribution of carbon in steels”, Kiev, Naukova Dumka, 1987).

The main studies in the nineties were focused on the development of physical principles for development of a new class of materials - high-nitrogen steels. In 1989-91, based on this research, the Institute of Metal Physics has become a leading scientific organization in the USSR on the developing of nitrogen steels within the frame of State Scientific and Technical Program "Advanced Materials". The program included the following projects:

• high- nitrogen steels for high-strength corrosion-resistant non-magnetic ropes,
• steel for non-magnetic pipes used in the systems directing the oil drilling,
• corrosion-resistant steel for springs,
• steel for disposable syringes.

Physical studies were carried out in collaboration with the Department of Materials Technology, Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany (Prof. Hans Berns, Prof. Werner Teisen). The research results are summarized in the monographs of V.G. Gavriljuk, H. Berns “High Nitrogen Steels”, Springer, Berlin, 1999, and H. Berns, V. Gavriljuk, S. Riedner “High Interstitial Stainless Austenitic Steels”, Springer, Berlin (2013).

In cooperation with the Laboratory of Structural Materials of Helsinki University of Technology (at present, Aalto University), Finland (Prof. Hannu Hänninen), and later with the Laboratory of Metal Physics, University of Lille, France (Prof. Jacques Foct), another scientific direction of hydrogen in structural materials was also developed since 1991. Subsequently, since 2002, this field has being headed by PhD V.N. Shivaniuk, and since 2012, the cooperation with the Institute of Mechanics and Engineering, I2M, UMR CNRS 5295, Bordeaux University 1, France has started.

For studies of recently discovered (1996) magnetic shape memory effect, a scientific group headed by Dr. N.I. Glavatskaya was formed in 1998. This group deals with studies of new ferromagnetic functional materials.