“The mysterious force we use to stick our travel souvenirs to the fridge is the same one used to store our digital data!” What an incredible concept — as explained in an article Kshiti Mishra, magnetism is used to store our digital data. Not only that, but there’s a new way to store data on the horizon. Put simply, this new method involves shooting lasers on magnets. Yes, it sounds like a chapter in an old sci-fi novel, but no, this is real life. 

The Basics of Big Data

To break it down, Big Data is really all the information that lives online (pictures, videos, documents, etc.), and yes that includes the information on our Instagrams and Twitters. Every “bit” of data is made from building blocks — a series of ‘0’s and ‘1’s. When we save or upload something, it’s stored and “written” on hard disk drives (HDDs) on personal computers and data centers around the world. The HDDs also need a place to store the ‘0’ and ‘1’ bits. That’s where magnetism comes in.   Magnets have two poles (North and South) that repel like poles and attract unlike poles. Broken down enough, you end up with single-atom magnets. HDDs store data on a magnetic film filled with these single-atom magnets. ‘0’ and ‘1’ correlate with two directions of these magnets. Storage capacity depends on how many bits can fit into a space on the magnetic film. Tiny electromagnets are used to “write” the bits. Current passes through them, creating a magnetic field over the magnetic film. The film puts the single-atom magnets into a spin until they settle into ‘0’s or ‘1’s. This all happens in a billionth of a second.

Current Demand of Data

The current HDD technology can’t keep up with the amount of data we have and keep making. Data centers are growing quickly, and that gets expensive. The electromagnets used to write the magnetic bits also consume a lot of energy. This is an issue, but it’s being combated by finding new ways to write data faster, more energy-efficiently, and taking up even less space.

A New Way… With Lasers!

In 2007 scientists found a new ferrimagnetic material. Using this material as the “page,” magnetic bits can be written without a magnetic field. How? With light pulses from lasers! They’re actually the same kind of lasers used in certain surgeries that require focused heating.  After quite a bit of follow-up research and experimentation, scientists learned more about this method where the interplay between atomic spins and heat flow is completed within picoseconds. That’s a thousand times faster than the old method and consumes a thousand times less energy. More research is necessary to lower energy consumption and material cost even more.

Apex Magnets

Lasers and magnets — a match made in heaven! At Apex Magnets, we publish regular blogs about new magnetic technology, DIY projects, and the latest magnet news. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive all our latest and greatest content.