Communications of the ACM
Radboud Professor Invents Magnet For Fast and Cheap Data Storage
Radboud University Nijmegen researchers say optical data storage does not require expensive magnetic materials and works just as well as synthetic alternatives.
Credit: Radboud University Nijmegen
Optical data storage does not require expensive magnetic materials and works just as well as synthetic alternatives, according to Radboud University Nijmegen researchers. They say optical switching is possible in special magnets, called ferrimagnets, which are made of expensive rare-earth metals that are difficult to produce at nano-scale.
"Now, we have shown for the first time that it is also possible to switch synthetic ferrimagnets optically," says Radboud professor Theo Rasing. He says ferrimagnets have an unusual property in that their spins are not all of the same magnitude, which gives them a net magnetic moment. "It is therefore possible to create a net magnetic moment by combining two layers of different thicknesses and opposing magnetization directions, for example," Rasing says. "Coupling the spins works in a very similar manner, in the same two-step process that we previously developed for the normal ferrimagnets."
He notes the production of synthetic ferrimagnets does not require the use of rare-earth metals, which makes them less expensive and better for the environment, and therefore more suitable for use in computers. "I really believe that this is the start of a fundamentally new form of data storage, and possibly data processing too," Rasing says.
From Radboud University Nijmegen
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