An essential distinction between the surface and volume dynamic properties of 180° domain walls in iron whiskers that is not explained by the existent theory is determined. With the help of magneto-optical investigations in a vacuum cell, it is established that the reason for the abnormal behaviour of domain walls is the physical adsorption of molecules contained in the air on the whisker surface.

Motion of a single 180-degree domain wall in perfect monocrystals of iron was investigated in a vacuum cell by a magnetooptic method with micron-resolution. It was found, that the relaxation frequency of the domain wall increased by more than one order with the decrease of the air pressure from 105 to 103 Pa.

The localization correction to the conductivity of thin Bi films has been measured as a function of the angle between the magnetic field and the film plane. This dependence is well given by the weak localization theory and permits the wave function phase relaxation time τ ϕ to be found. Comparison of the experimental τ ϕ for Bi and Sb films with those calculated for the electron-electron interaction in quasi-two-dimensional disordered systems suggests that it is the main mechanism of inelastic scattering in Bi and Sb films at low temperatures.

Electron diffraction patterns were used to study the effect of a change in lattice spacing of small crystalline particles in bismuth and zinc island films due to surface pressure. To obtain angle dependences of the particle contraction, a non-reference method was developed to find the difference in effect and the total effect values in different directions in the crystal. The changes in the lattice spacings of crystalline bismuth and zinc particles were found to be anisotropic, the anisotropy being dominated by the anisotropy of the linear compressibility coefficient. The effect of contraction as a function of particle size was obtained and was used to estimate the surface tension for different crystallographic planes.