Future electronics with super-efficient hard drives: Electricity controls magnetism
Friday, March 7, 2014 - 09:02
in Physics & Chemistry
Researchers have demonstrated how a magnetic structure can be altered quickly in novel materials. The effect could be used in efficient hard drives of the future. Data on a hard drive is stored by flipping small magnetic domains. Researchers have now changed the magnetic arrangement in a material much faster than is possible with today's hard drives. The researchers used a new technique where an electric field triggers these changes, in contrast to the magnetic fields commonly used in consumer devices. This method uses a new kind of material where the magnetic and electric properties are coupled. Applied in future devices, this kind of strong interaction between magnetic and electric properties can have numerous advantages.