Recent Patents on Self-Organised Magnetic Nanodot Arrays

As the continuous advance in the process of device miniaturisation reaches down to the nanometre range, fabrication techniques based on self-organisation, i.e., the spontaneous formation of ordered patterns on surfaces, are becoming increasingly attractive as potential, highly efficient alternatives to lithographic methods. In this article we review some of the methodologies that have been developed recently to produce ordered arrays of nanomagnets using self-organised surface templates, and we list the patents that have been filed recently to protect those fabrication procedures. We describe the underlying phenomena giving rise to the appearance of the ordered structures, and discuss their characteristics and the controllable parameters.