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A new study suggests that magnetic patterns similar to a hedgehog's spikes could result in larger hard disks. Data centers could use the finding to keep up with demand for video and cloud data storage.
Researchers at The Ohio State University used a magnetic microscope to see the patterns in thin films of an unusual magnetic material. The magnetism in this material is similar to the structure of DNA. A new zoo of magnetic patterns with names such as anti-hedgehogs, skyrmions, and merons can be much smaller than today's magnetic bits.
Jay Gupta is a professor of physics at Ohio State and the senior author of the study. The density of storage in hard disks is approaching its limits due to how small you can make the magnetic bits that allow for that storage. We might be able to make the magnetic bits smaller with new materials.
Gupta and his team used a scanning tunneling microscope in his lab to see the magnetic patterns. The microscope has pictures of the magnetic patterns. The magnetism at the surface was twisted into a pattern resembling the spikes of a hedgehog, according to their images. The "body" of the hedgehog is 10 nanometers wide, which is much smaller than today's magnetic bits, and nearly impossible to see. A single human hair is about 80,000 nanometers thick.
The research team found that the patterns could be shifted on the surface with electric currents or magnetic fields. This shows how reading and writing magnetic data can use less energy than currently possible.
Gupta said that there is enormous potential for magnetic patterns to allow data storage to be more energy efficient, though he cautions that there is more research to do before the material could be put into use on a data storage site. There is a lot of fundamental science still to be done about understanding magnetic patterns and controlling them. This is an exciting step.
Jacob Repicky and his team have created an Atomic-scale visualization of the spin texture in the chiral magnet. There is a science.abd9225
Science journal information.
There is a Magnetic Hedgehogs that could store big data in a small space.
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