ABSTRACT
A ferromagnetic island is a detached piece of ferromagnetic material, supported by a nonmagnetic* substrate. ›e term ferromagnetic island is usually used to describe a prolate object with a thickness of a few nanometers and lateral dimensions of up to a few micrometers. If the geometrical conœnement becomes comparable or smaller than the intrinsic magnetic length scales, such as the exchange length, the domain size, or the domain wall thickness, novel magnetic properties and magnetization reversal mechanisms emerge, di˜erent from the properties of the respective bulk material. ›e domain conœguration, the reversal mechanism, and the demagnetizing œeld of ferromagnetic islands can be tailored by their size, their shape, and their chemical composition.
