New Discovery Could Lead to Super Data Storage Chips

Florida State University researchers say they have discovered discovered crystals that could lead to super security chips and this, combined with the discovery of specific materials could expand the capacity of storage devices by 1,000 to 1 million times. As noted in this PC World report, the main purpose of the research is to find materials whose crystalline structure can be used as the building blocks of digital circuits.

"Kroto and Dalal are looking for two-dimensional structures that can support this bottom-up engineering, and in the course of doing that discovered three-dimensional crystalline structures that have concurrent properties of being influenced by electrical current and being influenced by magnetic fields. This is a rare combination in which materials are said to be multiferroic because they are ferroelectric and ferromagnetic at the same time.

"So far, the research team has found four such crystals, and expects to be able to create more. While their discoveries are promising a great deal of work needs to be done before suitable materials are found and developed into products."