Scientists have developed a new way to control magnetism using light, a breakthrough that could eventually make digital data storage faster, more compact, and more energy-efficient.
The research, conducted by engineers at the University of California San Diego, was published in the journal Nature Communications.
Modern hard drives and other storage systems rely on tiny magnetic regions to encode digital information as 1s and 0s. Writing new data usually involves applying an external magnetic field to change the orientation of these regions. However, this process consumes considerable energy and places limits on how quickly information can be recorded.
The UC San Diego team has demonstrated an alternative that uses light to change these magnetic states, a technique known as optical switching. Light can deliver energy in extremely short bursts and can be focused onto remarkably small areas, potentially allowing magnetic information to be written much faster and with less energy. According to the researchers, optical switching could achieve speeds more than 1,000 times greater than conventional methods that depend on external magnetic fields.
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