Deposition of magnetic nanostructures into porous silicon (PS) matrices performed electrochemically or by infiltration merges the electronic properties of a semiconductor and the magnetic ones of the incorporated material. The PS templates used exhibit unconnected mesopores with a high aspect ratio of about 1000. Magnetization measurements of such hybrid materials show two characteristic field regions, one at magnetic fields below the saturation magnetization M-s of the deposited metals due to the spin magnetism and another one at higher fields above M-s, which is assigned to an intensively investigated magnetic contribution likely caused by a spin-orbit interaction. (C) 2009 The Electrochemical Society. [DOI: 10.1149/1.3269188] All rights reserved.