Journal Physics D: Applied Physics

Some of the most relevant finite-size and surface effects in the magnetic and transport properties of magnetic fine particles and granular solids are reviewed. The stability of the particle magnetization, superparamagnetic regime and the magnetic relaxation are discussed. New phenomena appearing due to interparticle interactions, such as the collective state and non-equilibrium dynamics, are presented. Surface anisotropy and disorder, spin-wave excitations, as well as the enhancements of the coercive field and particle magnetization are also reviewed. The competition of surface and finite-size effects to settle the magnetic behaviour is addressed. Finally, two of the most relevant phenomena in the transport properties of granular solids are summarized namely, giant magnetoresistance in granular heterogeneous alloys and Coulomb gap in insulating granular solids.

Early experiments in magnonics were made using ferrite samples, largely due to the intrinsically low magnetic (spin-wave) damping in these materials. Historically, magnonic phenomena were studied on micrometre to millimetre length scales. Today, the principal challenge in applied magnonics is to create sub-micrometre devices using modern polycrystalline magnetic alloys. However, until certain technical obstacles are overcome in these materials, ferrites—in particular yttrium iron garnet (YIG)—remain a valuable source of insight. At a time when interest in magnonic systems is particularly strong, it is both useful and timely to review the main scientific results of YIG magnonics of the last two decades, and to discuss the transferability of the concepts and ideas learned in ferrite materials to modern nano-scale systems.