A team from the University of California, Berkeley, says it has discovered a new way to switch the polarisation of nanomagnets. The move is said to pave the way for high density storage to move from hard disks onto integrated circuits.
The team, led by Sayeef Salahuddin, has found that a slight tilt of the magnets makes them easy to switch without an external magnetic field. "To reduce the power draw and increase the speed, we want to be able to manufacture a computer chip that includes memory so that it is close to the computational action," said Salahuddin. "However, the physics needed to create long term storage are not compatible with integrated circuits."
Creating and switching polarity in magnets without an external magnetic field has been a key focus in the field of spintronics. Generating a magnetic field takes power and space, a reason put forward by the researchers why magnets have yet to be integrated onto chips.
In previous research, Salahuddin and his colleagues found that directing electrical current through tantalum creates polarity in magnets without an external magnetic field. Packing a sufficient number of nanomagnets onto a chip meant aligning them perpendicularly, but that vertical orientation negated the switching effects of tantalum.
"We found that, by tilting the magnet – just 2° was enough – you get the benefits of a high density magnetic switch without the need for an external magnetic field," said Salahuddin.
