Feature Article: Influence of the lattice discreteness on magnetic ordering in nanostructures and nanoarrays

Abstract

AbstractThe cover picture shows an artist's view of magnetic, single domain, in‐plane magnetized islands (courtesy of M. Bode) superimposed with the schematic representation of corresponding magnetostatic multipolar moments. The islands possess shape‐dependent distributions of uncompensated “magnetic” charges and, hence, different multipolar moments (see Section 4 of the Feature Article [1]). The moments are imaged as equipotential surfaces of charge distributions corresponding to conventional spherical harmonics. Positive charged surfaces are red, the negative ones green. The disc‐shaped nanodots with a height equal to a diameter possess only dipolar terms, the elongated elliptic islands have a strong octopolar contribution, while the islands of even more elongated or complicated shape possess superposition of different multipoles.Elena Vedmedenko is a research scientist of the Institute for Applied Physics at the University of Hamburg. Among other scientific topics her research activity concerns theoretical aspects of nanomagnetism. In 2005 Elena Vedmedenko was awarded the Hertha‐Sponer Prize of the German Physical Society for achievements in this area.The issue also contains a special section on “Metamaterials – Optical Elements for the 21st Century” with papers presented at the DPG Summer School held in Bad Honnef, Germany, in September 2006.