Magnetic Storage Using Quantum Vortex Cores

brian0918 writes, "Researchers at the Max Planck Institute have discovered a new, easy way to manipulate the state of tiny magnetic structures, called vortex cores, quickly and without loss. From their press release: 'Up until now, very strong magnetic fields have been necessary to accomplish this, requiring highly complex technology. The new method might open up new possibilities for magnetic data storage. The directions of the small nanoscopic magnetic needles define a digital bit that is extremely stable in the face of frequently unavoidable external factors such as heat or interference from magnetic fields.'" You can read the first paragraph of the paper at Nature; subscribers can read it all.

Comments

So what?

[Warin]

For the non engineers like me... what does this mean in practical usage?

Does it allow smaller particles to store a 0/1 charge, meaning much higher densities for hard drives? Is it cheaper to manufacture? More durable?

Being a notebook user, I'd love to see densities go way up so I can pack a lot more around with me.

Re:So what?

[starwed]

"Does it allow smaller particles to store a 0/1 charge, meaning much higher densities for hard drives?" I think thats the main idea. I haven't read this paper, but I've seen talks about related research where the goal was to increase data density.

Re:So what?

[PieSquared]

I'm not sure how close together they can have these vortex and keep them stable, but each individual one was something like 80 atoms across. So yea, I'd guess that the goal would be much greater storage density. As for getting it to a usable read-write speed and maintaining reliability over a few hundred gigs... well I guess that remains to be seen.

Thumbs up for coolest tech name ever!

[StefanJ]

Quantum . . . Vortex . . . Cores

I mean, dang, that name rocks!

I can only hope that drives using this technology have Sub-Ether interfaces and processor boards hosting neural nets harvested from the brains of silicon life forms from Mercury.

Why do i get the sinking feeling

[eclectro]

that this either (or all) requires a tank of liquid helium, a roomful of sophisticated atomic scanning microscopes, or a highly radioactive source???

Don't hold your breath.

[Vellmont]

  the vortex core, which has been predicted in theory for forty years, but which experiments revealed only four years ago.

So scientists have been trying to detect it for 36 years, and only were able to do so 4 years ago? Something tells me that we won't be finding this in use for data storage anytime soon.

Anyone know how they can detect these vortex cores? It's great that they've found a "relatively" inexpensive way to reverse the core, but if you still need a magnetic force atomic microscope to "read" the thing, I don't see much practical use to it.

Re:Wake me when I can buy one

[justinlindh]

My comment is more in reference to new storage technologies that are heralded as "the next big thing". We've reached the theorhetical storage capacity on the magnetic technologies, and have known the limits for a while. Sure, we've doubled magnetic storage drive capacities in the last few years, but can we go any further? What's REALLY next? It seems like I've read tens of press releases touting a breakthrough in a new form of data storage, but none ever materialize.

Quite simply, I just get impatient and more jaded with each new press release I see promising a metaphorical flying car "soon". Not to bash this slashdot posting, as it IS informational.

copyrights on gov't funded reseach are bogus

[ebers]

The taxpayers of Germany and the US paid for this research. When Nature decides to let them read the article they paid for, I'll start respecting Nature's copyright.

But doesn't it also mean

[geekoid]

instant on?