IBM researchers have read and written data to a magnet consisting of just one atom for the first time ever. The company’s research results, published in Nature, prove that “the experiment truly creates a lasting, stored magnetic state in a single atom that can be detected indirectly,” TechCrunch reports.
“Magnetic bits lie at the heart of hard-disk drives, tape and next-generation magnetic memory,” said Christopher Lutz, lead nanoscience researcher at IBM Research Almaden in San Jose, California.
“We conducted this research to understand what happens when you shrink technology down to the most fundamental extreme — the atomic scale.”
Although right now the product is pure research, the density of atomic-level storage could substantially alter our relationship with data.
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You can already fit your entire music library onto a storage device the size of a penny. IBM’s technique would allow you to fit 26 million songs — Apple’s entire music catalog — onto the same area.
In the future, this development could have significant implications for everything from personal devices and business records to artificial intelligence.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did IBM researchers achieve in 2017?
IBM researchers read and wrote data to a magnet consisting of just one atom for the first time. Their results, published in Nature, showed a lasting, stored magnetic state in a single atom that could be detected indirectly.
Why did IBM conduct this research?
Christopher Lutz, lead nanoscience researcher at IBM Research Almaden in San Jose, said the goal was to understand what happens when technology is shrunk down to the most fundamental extreme, the atomic scale.
Why do magnetic bits matter?
According to Christopher Lutz, magnetic bits lie at the heart of hard-disk drives, tape and next-generation magnetic memory, which is why storing a bit on a single atom is significant.
How much data could atomic-scale storage hold?
The article says a storage device the size of a penny can already hold a music library, but IBM's technique would allow 26 million songs, described as Apple's entire music catalogue, to fit in the same area.
Is single-atom storage available in products?
No. At the time of the 2017 announcement it was pure research. The article says it could eventually have significant implications for personal devices, business records and artificial intelligence.