Nano-structured materials become more and more important in various fields such as nano-electronics, magnetic storage technology, etc. On such a length scale properties might change compared to bulk properties. These might become beneficial for new applications. As an example, investigations on the magnetic properties of nano-structured material (about half a monolayer of 2 nm iron islands on a tungsten substrate) have been carried out. The results show that the magnetic properties are highly temperature dependent and have an unexpected perpendicular spin alignment with respect to the surface [1]. In another example the vibrational dynamics of pure nano-crystalline iron has been investigated. These results are presented hereafter.

Reference
[1] R. Röhlsberger et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 5597 (2001).