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Phoenix666 writes:

Physicists achieved a robust and reliable magnetization switching process by domain wall displacement without any applied fields. The effect is observed in tiny asymmetric permalloy rings and may pave the way to extremely efficient new memory devices. The results have been published in Physical Review Applied, highlighted as an Editors' Suggestion.

To construct magnetic memories, elements with two stable magnetization states are needed. Promising candidate for such magnetic elements are tiny rings, typically of the order of few micrometers, with clockwise or counterclockwise magnetization as the two states. Unfortunately, switching between those two states directly requires a circular magnetic field which is not easy to achieve.

But this problem can be solved, as demonstrated by a team of scientists from several institutions in Germany including Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin: If the hole in the ring is slightly displaced, thus making the ring thinner on one side, a simple, uniaxial magnetic field pulse of some nanoseconds duration can switches between the two possible "vortex states" used for data storage (clockwise and counterclockwise).

Original Submission