Inelastic light scattering in magnetic dots and wires

An overview of the current status of the study of spin-wave excitations in arrays of magnetic dots and wires is given. We describe both the status of theory and recent inelastic light scattering experiments addressing the three most important issues: the modification of magnetic properties by patterning due to shape anisotropies, anisotropic coupling between magnetic islands, and the quantization of spin waves due to the in-plane confinement of spin waves in islands.