Making an atom flip
p2pnet.net News:- IBM scientists say the first result by a technique they’ve developed to study nanometer-scale magnetic structures has allowed them to measured how much energy is needed for a single atom to flip its magnetic orientation.
“From spintronics to quantum computing, a large number of dramatically new ideas for electronic, computing and data storage devices are emerging to exploit the remarkable properties resulting from the magnetic orientations of electrons and atoms,” say the IBM researchers .
“To engineer the anticipated nanoscale features of these new types of circuits, we will need fundamental knowledge of the magnetic properties of small numbers of atoms in various environments,” said Andreas Heinrich, research staff member at IBM’s Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California. “Our new technique provides this information in much more detail and precision than had been possible before.”
Spintronic electronic circuits exploit the magnetic orientation of electrons and atoms. Spin, in short. And it could lead to M-RAM - magnetic random access memory - among other things, say IBM and Stanford University.
Atomic holographic DVR disc drive inventor Michael Thomas, however, goes even further.
He wanted, and still wants, to use polarized UV photons with the same resonant frequencies as the ferroelectric molecule and electric fields to control electron movement, polarity, and EMF fields for optical display imagery and data storage applications.
“I invented new phrases like photon induced electric field poling, plasmonic physics, and ferroelectric spintronics to talk about the science,” he told p2pnet.
The IBM researchers explain an electron’s spin is either ‘up’ or ‘down’ and that aligning spins in a material creates magnetism: the IBM researchers measured the energy required to flip the spin of a single manganese atom from “up” to “down.”
If the technical details interest you, you’ll find more in IBM Research News.
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See:-
holographic DVR - Spintronics, p2pnet, May 6, 2004
find more - IBMÂ scientists demonstrate single-atom magnetic measurements
