<i>Colloquium</i>: Opportunities in nanomagnetism

TLDR

Nanomagnetism studies magnetic phenomena in submicron structures, sharing core nanoscience principles such as geometric confinement, proximity, and self‑organization. The Colloquium aims to address challenges in nanomagnetism, covering fabrication strategies, experiments on spin‑related behaviors in metals, theoretical analyses, and virus‑based magnetic nanoparticle fabrication. Illustrated through examples such as ultrastrong permanent magnets, high‑density recording media, nanobiomagnetic sensing, and virus‑based magnetic nanoparticle fabrication.

Abstract

Nanomagnetism is the discipline dealing with magnetic phenomena specific to structures having dimensions in the submicron range. This Colloquium addresses the challenges and scientific problems in this emerging area, including its fabrication strategies, and describes experiments that explore new spin-related behaviors in metallic systems as well as theoretical efforts to understand the observed phenomena. As a subfield of nanoscience, nanomagnetism shares many of the same basic organizing principles such as geometric confinement, physical proximity, and chemical self-organization. These principles are illustrated by means of several examples drawn from the quests for ultrastrong permanent magnets, ultra-high-density magnetic recording media, and nanobiomagnetic sensing strategies. As a final example showing the synergetic relationships to other fields of science, this Colloquium discusses the manipulation of viruses to fabricate magnetic nanoparticles.