Ultra-fast laser-based writing of data to storage devices
Friday, July 31, 2020 - 08:30
in Physics & Chemistry
Modern life revolves around data, which means that we need new, fast, and energy-efficient methods to read and write data on our storage devices. Optical-based approaches, which use laser pulses to write data instead of magnets, have received considerable attention over the past decade following the development of all-optical switching (AOS) for magnetic materials. While fast and energy efficient, AOS has issues with precision. Researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology have devised a new method to accurately write data to a cobalt-gadolinium (Co/Gd) layer with a laser pulse using a ferromagnetic material as a reference to help with the writing process. Their research is published in Nature Communications.