  Novel material properties can be realized by designing waves' dispersion
relations in artificial crystals. The crystal's structural length scales may
range from nano- (light) up to centimeters (sound waves). Because of their
emergent properties these materials are called metamaterials. Different to
photonics, where the dielectric constant dominantly determines the index of
refraction, in a ferromagnet the spin-wave index of refraction can be
dramatically changed already by the magnetization direction. This allows a
different flexibility in realizing dynamic wave guides or spin-wave switches.
The present review will give an introduction into the novel functionalities of
spin-wave devices, concepts for spin-wave based computing and magnonic
crystals. The parameters of the magnetic metamaterials are adjusted to the
spin-wave k-vector such that the magnonic band structure is designed. However,
already the elementary building block of an antidot lattice, the singular hole,
owns a strongly varying internal potential determined by its magnetic dipole
field and a localization of spin-wave modes. Photo-magnonics reveal a way to
investigate the control over the interplay between localization and
delocalization of the spin-wave modes using femtosecond lasers, which is a
major focus of this review. We will discuss the crucial parameters to realize
free Bloch states and how, by contrast, a controlled localization might allow
to gradually turn on and manipulate spin-wave interactions in spin-wave based
devices in the future.

Materials Science