Overview

Led by ICREA Prof. Josep Nogués, the Magnetic Nanostructures Group investigates different types of magnetic nanostructures with the aim of improving their functional properties. The group combines state of the art lithographic or chemical synthesis methods with structural, morphological and magnetic characterisation to focus on three areas; magnetic properties of lithographed magnetic nanostructures, magnetic nanoparticles, and other non-nanometric systems.

Background

Magnetic lithographed nanostructures are at the heart of most spintronic devices (e.g., magnetic random access - MRAM or sensors). Similarly, magnetic nanoparticles have demonstrated a potential in a broad range of disciplines, from medical applications to magnetic recording. At the same time, these types of systems exhibit a variety of novel properties which have not been exploited in applications.

Aside from patterning (varying the size, shape or distance), the magnetic properties of nanostructures can be considerably modified by different types of interactions with other magnetic materials.

Magnetic nanoparticles have long been studied due to their wide range of novel fundamental properties, and wide range of applications. Interestingly, the required magnetic properties depend widely on the type of application. Thus, the magnetic properties of nanoparticles often need to be adjusted to match specific purposes.