US scientists have come up with a new mechanism that would control magnetic memory of the computers to enable more accurately write and store information in the hard drives. The new technology will switch a magnetic nanoparticle without any magnetic field.
The research led by the noted physicist of Argonne National Laboratory, Matthias Bode and four other physicists from the University of Hamburg have implemented a magnetic probe tip-supported scanning tunneling microscope to force a spin current through a small magnetic structure. They have proved that the structure’s magnetization direction is not affected by a small current. However, it can be affected when the spin current is very high.
As of now, almost all the computers are based on DRAM, where data (binary digital information or bit) is stored in an individual capacitor in an integrated circuit.
The latest research now aims at empowering computers with magneto-resistive random access memory (MRAM). In MRAM, data is stored in magnetic storage elements that consist of two layers; each one is separated by a thin non-magnetic spacer.
Stefan Krause, one of researchers at the University of Hamburg acknowledges:
We have made a big step on the way to a new type of hard disk by demonstrating that current-induced magnetization switching is possible with an STM, but there are still some things to do for a commercial application of this new technique.
Bode explains that the MRAM are generally controlled by magnetic fields. Thus, when the bit size reduces to enable more storage in a computer, there are possibility of false writing what we can say ‘far-field effects. In order to avoid such problems, the magnetic field may switch the magnetization of both target bit and its neighbors using the scanning tunneling microscope.
Via: Skysong
