Spin structures of nanoscale magnetic dots are the subject of increasing scientific effort, as the confinement of spins imposed by the geometrical restrictions makes these structures comparable to some internal characteristic length scales of the magnet. For a vortex (a ferromagnetic dot with a curling magnetic structure), a spot of perpendicular magnetization has been theoretically predicted to exist at the center of the vortex. Experimental evidence for this magnetization spot is provided by magnetic force microscopy imaging of circular dots of permalloy (Ni(80)Fe(20)) 0.3 to 1 micrometer in diameter and 50 nanometers thick.

The motion of a magnetic domain wall in a submicrometer magnetic wire was detected by use of the giant magnetoresistance effect. Magnetization reversal in a submicrometer magnetic wire takes place by the propagation of a magnetic domain wall, which can be treated as a "particle." The propagation velocity of the magnetic domain wall was determined as a function of the applied magnetic field.

The dynamics of magnetostatically coupled vortices in two nanodisks is here investigated analytically and numerically. The rigid vortex model is employed to calculate the magnetostatic interaction between the nanodisks. We use Thiele's equation where collective degrees of freedom describe the motion of each vortex core. We find that there are eigenfrequencies of circular vortex core motion around the disk center, which depend on the core polarizations of the vortices. We also obtain the energy absorption rate of the system when subjected to an oscillating in-plane magnetic field. Finally, we can draw an analogy between this vortex system and a van der Waals diatomic molecule.