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

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.