In the past 30 years, magnetic research has been dominated by the question of how surfaces and interfaces influence the magnetic and transport properties of nanostructures, thin films and multilayers. The research has been particularly important in the magnetic recording industry where the giant magnetoresistance effect led to a new generation of storage devices including hand-held memories such as those found in the ipod. More recently, transfer of spin angular momentum across interfaces has opened a new field for high frequency applications.

This book gives a comprehensive view of research at the forefront of these fields. The frontier is expanding through dynamic exchange between theory and experiment. Contributions have been chosen to reflect this, giving the reader a unified overview of the topic.