In Tiniest Computer Memory Ever, Researchers Successfully Store Data in Atomic Nuclei
Nuclear Spintronics This phosphorus-doped silicon chip was used to demonstrate nuclear spin memory. Researchers were able to store information for 112 seconds. Dane R. McCamey Physicists have stored information for nearly two minutes inside the magnetic spins of atomic nuclei, producing the longest-lasting spintronic device yet and what could be the world's tiniest computer memory. There's just one problem: the computer operates at -454 F (about 3.2 degrees K) and requires a magnetic field roughly 200,000 times more powerful than Earth's. Still, it's a major advancement in spintronics, which involves storing data in the magnetic compasses of atomic particles. Usually, data is stored in the spin of electrons, but the memory lifetime is on the timescale of microseconds, according to the study, conducted by researchers in Australia and Utah and published today in the journal Science. Instead, the researchers stored data in the longer-lived nucleus of an atom. D.R. McCamey and colleagues mapped...