Incredible to find out, researchers have at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) developed a kind of egg shaped nanomagnets for future low power computer memories.
Even the Easter is far away, the specially coloured nanomagnets shaped as eggs will be successfully implemented to do a better job.
The NIST scientist described their study and we found out that they used electron beam lithography to create thousands of nickel-iron magnets, each with a dimension of about 200 nanometers in diameter and shaped like an ellipse. The researchers on nanoscale magnetic materials are working for future magnetic data storage systems.
The studies pointed out that a small alteration in nanomagnets shape can lead to significant changes in magnetic properties. This detail was learned by scientist by probing the magnets with laser and by examining what happens to the “spins of the electrons”, a quantum property responsible for magnetic orientation. The spin angle changes can circulate through the nanomagnets like waves at different frequencies; lighter colours indicate stronger frequency signals.
The properties of the egg shape explain irregular behaviour in large arrays of nanomagnets. One method in making future memories and provided high-speed data access is Spin RAM. This method reduces processor power needs by storing data permanently and by increase smaller devices. With the nanomagnets shaped like eggs the symmetric frequency pattern found in ellipse structure is broken giving a huge opportunity to customize and better control the switching process.
The one of the authors of the paper, the physicist Tom Silva stated that: “For example, intentional patterning of egg-like distortions into spin RAM memory elements may facilitate more reliable switching” and he also added “Also, this study has provided the Easter Bunny with an entirely new market for product development.”
