New Storage Device Is Very Small, at 12 Atoms

Researchers at I.B.M. have stored and retrieved digital 1s and 0s from an array of just 12 atoms, pushing the boundaries of the magnetic storage of information to the edge of what is possible.

The findings are a new class of nanomaterials for a generation of memory chips and disk drives that will not only have greater capabilities than the current silicon-based computers but will consume significantly less power. And they may offer a new direction for research in quantum computing. Magnetic materials are extremely useful and strategically important to many major economies, but there aren’t that many of them.

Until now, the most advanced magnetic storage systems have needed about one million atoms to store a digital 1 or 0. The new achievement is the product of a heated international race between elite physics laboratories to explore the properties of magnetic materials at a far smaller scale.

The group at I.B.M. Research Center has created the smallest possible unit of magnetic storage by painstakingly arranging two rows of six iron atoms on a surface of copper nitride. Such closeness is possible because the cluster of atoms is antiferromagnetic — a rare quality in which each atom in the array has an opposed magnetic orientation. (In common ferromagnetic materials like iron, nickel and cobalt, the atoms are magnetically aligned.)

I.B.M. has explored the science of nanomaterials far smaller than the silicon chips used in today’s semiconductors. The researchers use a scanning tunneling microscope, which looks like a giant washing machine festooned with aluminum foil, not only to capture images of atoms but to reposition individual atoms — much the way a billiard ball might be moved by a pool cue with a sticky tip. Although the research took place at a temperature near absolute zero, the scientists noted that the same experiment could be done at room temperature with as few as 150 atoms. As part of its demonstration of the antiferromagnetic storage effect, the researchers created a computer byte, or character, out of an individually placed array of 96 atoms. They then used the array to encode the I.B.M. motto “Think” by repeatedly programming the memory block to store representations of its five letters. Smaller groups of atoms begin to exhibit quantum mechanical behavior — simultaneously existing in both “spin” states, in effect 1 and 0 at the same time.

In theory, such atoms could be assembled into Qbits — the basic unit of an experimental approach to computing that might one day exceed the capabilities of today’s most powerful supercomputers. Atoms behave more like a quantum mechanical object. This is why science is interested in this work more than the technology.”

The I.B.M. effort heralded a new direction for nanotechnology and that it might offer a route to new kinds of nanomaterials. Nanotechnology labs are going to begin.

Antiferromagnetic materials are now instrumental in two types of data storage products. They are essential for the manufacture of recording heads, which resemble phonograph needles and are used in today’s hard disk drives. They are also used in a new type of memory chip known as spin-transfer-torque RAM, or STT-RAM, which some view as a future competitor for DRAM and Flash memory chips.

The tiny devices built with scanning tunneling microscopes would never be more than laboratory experiments. However, many research groups are exploring ways of designing novel materials using self-assembly methods, including mechanical and biological approaches. The semiconductor industry draws closer to exhausting the ability to scale down today’s circuits using lithographic tools that etch patterns on the surface of silicon wafers. An intense international hunt is under way for a manufacturing technology beyond microelectronics. The next logic switch will lead the nanoelectronics era and reap the economic rewards associated with it.

Words and word combinations:

Painstakingly –тщательно

Copper nitride – азотистая медь; нитрид меди

Closeness – плотность

Scanning tunneling microscope — сканирующий туннельный микроскоп СТМ; сканирующий туннельный микроскоп

To festoon – украшать гирляндами или фестонами, висеть в виде гирлянд

Antiferromagnetic антиферромагнитный

To herald – сообщать, возвещать, предвещать

To resemble – походить, иметь сходство

Exercise 1. Answer the questions

1. What capabilities will have nanomaterials for a generation of memory chips and disk drives?

2. Are magnetic materials useful and strategically important to many major economies?

3. How many atoms have the most advanced magnetic storage systems needed to store a digital 1 or 0?

4. What has the group at I.B.M. Research Center created?

5. How does a scanning tunneling microscope look like?

6. How did the researchers demonstrate the antiferromagnetic storage effect?

7. The tiny devices built with scanning tunneling microscopes would never be more than laboratory experiments, would they?

Exercise 2. Make up 4 types of questions to the sentences:

1. Researchers at I.B.M. have stored and retrieved digital 1s and 0s from an array of just 12 atoms.

2. The cluster of atoms is antiferromagnetic.

3. The research took place at a temperature near absolute zero.

4. Qbit is the basic unit of an experimental approach to computing.

Exercise 3. Discuss the following topics. Interactive work.

1) History of nanomaterials.

2) Future computing: DMA hard drives.

3). Today’s circuits using lithographic tools.

Exercise 4. Researchers at I.B.M. stores binary data on just 12 atoms: one step closer to atomic data storage. Discuss the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2OKVQmODC8

LESSON 4.