ABSTRACT
The study of magnetism at the nanoscale is mandatory for the scalability of all non-volatile memories based on magnetic materials and remains a challenging task at the fundamental level. Pioneering micro-SQUID measurements have provided among the first data on the magnetization reversal and magnetic anisotropy at the nanoscale but the experiments are challenging and scarce, limited to very specific samples. Averaging methods such as SQUID, vibrating sample magnetometer, and magneto-optical effects are much more widely used to characterize large ensembles of nanoparticles, in either bulk or thin films forms. The discovery of self-organization on crystalline surfaces at the nanometer scale has arisen in the nineties with the growing number of scanning probe microscopes around the world. Among the variety of experimental systems that can help to understand the magnetism at the nanoscale, the epitaxial self-organized magnetic nanoparticles are certainly a very fruitful approach.
