Smallest magnet

In 2012, a team of scientists at Hamburg University, Germany, constructed the world’s smallest stable magnet. Comprising only five iron atoms, manipulated into position on a silicon substrate using a Scanning Tunnelling Microscope, the magnet measures only 1.68 nanometres by 1.12 nanometres. Such magnets could be used in future magnetic-storage technology, where conventional magnetic hard-disk drives use track sizes many thousands of times larger than the demonstrated technology. Practical applications would probably dictate that a few more atoms are used, but this would only equate to 12 atoms per “bit” (one or zero) compared to the one million atoms used per “bit” in today’s smallest silicon storage devices. This technology could make incredible miniaturisation of storage devices a reality in the not-too-distant future. IBM have been working with the university to produce viable storage devices, albeit at very cold temperatures. However, scaling to room temperature is probably not more than two or three years away, so next-generation storage media is becoming a reality.