Storage News

Nanomagnets Could Be The Future of Low-Power Computer Memories

Magnetics researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology are claiming that "eggcentric" nanomagnets can suggest strategies for making future low-power computer memories. India Times reports the researchers used electron-beam lithography to make thousands of nickel-iron magnets in three different egg-like shapes with an increasingly pointy end. Results showed that even small distortions in magnet shape can lead to significant changes in magnetic properties.

"Researchers discovered this by probing the magnets with a laser and analyzing what happens to the "spins" of the electrons, a quantum property that's responsible for magnetic orientation. Changes in the spin orientation can propagate through the magnet like waves at different frequencies.”