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by Staff Writers Eindhoven, Netherlands (SPX) Jul 11, 2014
A hard drive stores bits in the form of tiny magnetic domains. The directions of the magnetic north and south poles of these domains, which are referred to as the magnetization, determine whether they are a 0 or a 1. Data is stored by changing the direction of the magnetization of the associated bits. At present this is done using a write head to create a local magnetic field, which makes a bit change direction.
Limit reached He is the lead author of a publication in Nature Communications, in which together with colleagues he presents a new technology.
Magnetic stream The resulting 'spin current' changes the magnetic properties of the material (see the figure for an explanation of the technology).
A thousand times faster "There was discussion among physicists about whether the generated spin current is actually able to cause the change in magnetization. We now definitely show that this is really the case", says Schellekens.
Optical computer chips "Our technology allows optical data to be stored in the form of magnetic bits. That offers unprecedented opportunities if you want to use light as information carrier", says Schellekens.
Related Links Eindhoven University of Technology Space Technology News - Applications and Research
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