Shape-induced magnetic anisotropy in dilute magnetic alloys

Recently, with the opportunities provided by nanolithography, finite-size effects in dilute magnetic alloys have been the subject of extensive experimental studies. While some experiments [1, 2, 3] revealed a considerable decrease of the logarithmic Kondo anomaly in the resistivity of thin films and narrow wires already for the μm scale, other measurements [4] showed an almost constant Kondo anomaly for wires with widths ranging down to 40 nm. The apparent discrepancy between the results of different groups makes the subject controversial and far from conclusive [5].