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Data Storage Science

Magnetic Storage Using Quantum Vortex Cores 135

Posted by kdawson from the next-little-thing dept.
brian0918 writes, "Researchers at the Max Planck Institute have discovered a new, easy way to manipulate the state of tiny magnetic structures, called vortex cores, quickly and without loss. From their press release: 'Up until now, very strong magnetic fields have been necessary to accomplish this, requiring highly complex technology. The new method might open up new possibilities for magnetic data storage. The directions of the small nanoscopic magnetic needles define a digital bit that is extremely stable in the face of frequently unavoidable external factors such as heat or interference from magnetic fields.'" You can read the first paragraph of the paper at Nature; subscribers can read it all.
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Magnetic Storage Using Quantum Vortex Cores More

Magnetic Storage Using Quantum Vortex Cores

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  • Everything old in new again (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Core memory eh? Why we used that in computers back when I was a kid!

  • So what? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Warin ( 200873 ) on Tuesday November 28, 2006 @04:36PM (#17023300)
    For the non engineers like me... what does this mean in practical usage?

    Does it allow smaller particles to store a 0/1 charge, meaning much higher densities for hard drives? Is it cheaper to manufacture? More durable?

    Being a notebook user, I'd love to see densities go way up so I can pack a lot more around with me.

    • Re:So what? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by starwed ( 735423 ) on Tuesday November 28, 2006 @04:38PM (#17023354)
      "Does it allow smaller particles to store a 0/1 charge, meaning much higher densities for hard drives?" I think thats the main idea. I haven't read this paper, but I've seen talks about related research where the goal was to increase data density.

      • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward
        "Does it allow smaller particles to store a 0/1 charge, meaning much higher densities for hard drives?"I think thats the main idea. I haven't read this paper, but I've seen talks about related research where the goal was to increase data density.
        You must be old here.

    • Re:So what? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by PieSquared ( 867490 ) <isosceles2006&gmail,com> on Tuesday November 28, 2006 @04:41PM (#17023400)
      I'm not sure how close together they can have these vortex and keep them stable, but each individual one was something like 80 atoms across. So yea, I'd guess that the goal would be much greater storage density. As for getting it to a usable read-write speed and maintaining reliability over a few hundred gigs... well I guess that remains to be seen.

    • Re:So what? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Plutonite ( 999141 ) on Tuesday November 28, 2006 @05:48PM (#17024668)
      For the non engineers like me... what does this mean in practical usage?

      Ummm...PORN!

      Really, the questions people ask. Sheesh.

    • Re:So what? (Score:4, Funny)

      by nomadic ( 141991 ) <`nomadicworld' `at' `gmail.com'> on Tuesday November 28, 2006 @06:13PM (#17025158) Homepage
      Who cares about how it works? Just listen to the name, man, Quantum Vortex Cores?? That's so freaking cool.

    • Re:So what? (Score:5, Informative)

      by arhines ( 620963 ) on Tuesday November 28, 2006 @06:28PM (#17025410) Homepage
      The paper cites 10nm radius for the cores, which at optimal packing (ie, one core per 20nm square) yields 3.12500 * 10^14 Bytes / m^2. The latest in perpendicular recording gives an areal density of 277.1 Mb/mm^2, which is just 3.46375 * 10^13 Bytes / m^2, an order of magnitude less! Granted, packing is probably not optimal -- the cores probably need to be spaced by at least a multiple of their diameter. But then again, the cores can probably be shrunk, so at the very least this represents a modest improvement over current storage density. At best, it represents at least an order of magnitude improvement (read: 7.5 TB desktop drives).

      PS: Slashdot -- please add support for mathml or latex code inserts :)

  • Finally! (Score:5, Funny)

    by pdbaby ( 609052 ) on Tuesday November 28, 2006 @04:36PM (#17023304)
    Finally, we're moving towards the star-trek age of technology. "Captain, the SAN is down" doesn't sound anywhere near as impressive as "Captain, the Quantum Vortex Core has crashed!"

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by Himring ( 646324 )
      Captain Picard: Mr. Data, is it possible to route the plasma conduits through the quantum vortex cores?
      Mr. Data: It could be done, but there is a risk of core breach if the gravitons grow out of alignment.
      Scotty: Bloody hell. Since when diya ask a piece o'machinery about the bleeding engine?
      Bones: I hate you all....

    • And when the Quantum Vortex Core is failing what do you do? Reroute something to the deflector array? Where's CleverNickName when you need him?
      • the simplest way to see if it's going to fail in a dangerous/explosive fashion is to stick a guy in a red shirt next to it then

    • Re:Finally! (Score:5, Funny)

      by alexhard ( 778254 ) <alexhard AT gmail DOT com> on Tuesday November 28, 2006 @05:00PM (#17023784) Homepage
      Finally, we're moving towards the star-trek age of technology. "Captain, the SAN is down" doesn't sound anywhere near as impressive as "Captain, the Quantum Vortex Core has crashed!"
      Quantum Vortex Cores don't just "crash" dude...the least we can expect is a mildly spectacular explosion!

      • You forgot the favourite describes-every-problem word of post-DS9 Star Trek:

        The quantum vortex core containment field is fluctuating.

      • Re:Finally! (Score:5, Funny)

        by powerlord ( 28156 ) on Tuesday November 28, 2006 @05:43PM (#17024562) Journal
        Finally, we're moving towards the star-trek age of technology. "Captain, the SAN is down" doesn't sound anywhere near as impressive as "Captain, the Quantum Vortex Core has crashed!"

        Quantum Vortex Cores don't just "crash" dude...the least we can expect is a mildly spectacular explosion!

        And they have to be "Jettison"-able.

        Engineer: "Sir! The Quantum Vortex Cores are becoming unstable! Explosion is imminent!"
        Manager: "Quick! Jettison the core into the Marketing department!"
      • followed by a really ominous sounding descending 'bzhoooooowm' tone...

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by Chris Burke ( 6130 )
      Only if we can avoid our tendency towards acronyms (something the advanced society of Star Trek has moved beyond).

      I can't imagine getting very excited over anything whose acronym is QVC.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Chacham ( 981 )
      "Captain, the Quantum Vortex Core has crashed!"

      "What are my options?"

      "After selling, about two million."

      "OK, take the helm, and beam, me down. I'm cashing in."

  • Translation (Score:5, Funny)

    by gt_mattex ( 1016103 ) on Tuesday November 28, 2006 @04:36PM (#17023308)

    Magnetic Storage Using Magic

    There now everyone can understand.

  • Thumbs up for coolest tech name ever! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by StefanJ ( 88986 ) on Tuesday November 28, 2006 @04:38PM (#17023336) Homepage Journal
    Quantum . . . Vortex . . . Cores

    I mean, dang, that name rocks!

    I can only hope that drives using this technology have Sub-Ether interfaces and processor boards hosting neural nets harvested from the brains of silicon life forms from Mercury.
    • You realize that they're just going to call them QVC's, right? And for the first two years, everyone will assume you're talking about the TV shopping network?
    • So I guess the actual manufactured storage device would be called a "Quantum Vortex Drive"? Or mabye a "Vortex Core Array"? Any other suggestions?
  • You can read the first paragraph of the paper at Nature; subscribers can read it all.


    Can anyone, umm, translate that paragraph into everyday english? I don't think we went over how gyrations of the vortex structure can be reversed by applying short bursts of the sinusoidal excitation field with amplitude of about 1.5 mT in high school physics.....

    • Re:First paragraph (Score:5, Informative)

      by PieSquared ( 867490 ) <isosceles2006&gmail,com> on Tuesday November 28, 2006 @04:45PM (#17023466)
      gyrations of the vortex structure can be reversed by applying short bursts of the sinusoidal excitation field with amplitude of about 1.5 mT

      We can turn the really small cones upside down by shooting it with 1.5 mili Tesla magnetic fields. Before we needed 500 times as much energy. I think that covers it.

      • Re:First paragraph (Score:5, Interesting)

        by ebyrob ( 165903 ) on Tuesday November 28, 2006 @05:26PM (#17024276)
        Ya, the big breakthrough appears to be that hitting the core with a very fast perpendicular field flips the needle about 300 times easier than hitting it with a very slow parallel field.

        Guess these little "needles" are much easier to spin than to force through the substrate... Of course, I'm not really sure I understand how the whole "anti-vortex" explanation fits with the notion of spinning the assembly. That could be down to fitting the explanation into existing models in a strange way, or it could just be I don't understand it. (Knowing a couple physicists, and looking at the graphics, I'm guessing the original models might not account for perpendicular fields...)

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by hurfy ( 735314 )
          Oh well, I can't get my head around the perpendicular part anyways ;(

          To be useful wouldn't they need to be on a medium of some sort?
          Useless the medium is a thread one...umm...vortex wide how do you hit it at 90 degrees? You can't focus the magnetism like a laser to get to another layer AFAIK.

          hmm, i may have figured it out while descibing it. Now do i have to patent it before i say it? hehe Seems like a bugger to manufacture tho, that multi-terabyte drive is gonna be multi$$
        • Yes, but what will this reversal sound like? They look like tiny little speakers. X0R the entire disk with itself at quantum speeds! THRUmmmmmmm.. (silence as the universe implodes into an infinite void of zeros) Wow, what fidelity!
    • If you want to tip over a boat, start rocking back and forth, adding energy with each back and forth motion. I know what keeps the boat in the up or down state; what keeps the votex from from staying somewhere inbetween? Do you have to un-rock then engergy from it too?
    • Can anyone, umm, translate that paragraph into everyday english?

      Maybe you need to reverse the polarity [penny-arcade.com] on your web browser?
    • You could read the press release [eurekalert.org].

  • Really? (Score:5, Funny)

    by User 956 ( 568564 ) on Tuesday November 28, 2006 @04:42PM (#17023418) Homepage
    Researchers at the Max Planck Institute have discovered a new, easy way to manipulate the state of tiny magnetic structures, called vortex cores, quickly and without loss.

    I hear that all they had to do was reverse the tachyon flow through the heisenberg compensators.
    • If you've done any bathtub science, you'll know that the vortex spins the other way in the Southern Hemisphere. If you cross the equator, all the bits flip from one to zero and zero to one.

      This will severly damage your pron collection because it will flip the picture around, so instead of seeing a nice full-frontal, you'll only see a butt & back.

      All your music will run backwards and, if the Christian groups are right, will just turn into a whole lot of satanic chanting.

      One place it will help though is c

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )
        Unless you're listening to Marilyn Manson, in which case it'll turn into something once played on Little House on the Prairie.
    • They did, but that caused a gravimetric surge which inverted the warp bubble, causing the graviton particles in the antimatter container to invert polarity and cause miniature singularities in the reactor!

      The solution was an intense beam of Thoron radiation which showered the Dilithium crystals with Polaron particles, which managed to counteract the inversion of polarity in the graviton particles and thus the vortex cores were not destroyed...

  • No need! (Score:5, Funny)

    by ScentCone ( 795499 ) on Tuesday November 28, 2006 @04:43PM (#17023430)
    You can read the first paragraph of the paper at Nature

    Nah. You had me at "quantum vortex cores."

    • >You had me at "quantum vortex cores."

      Is that what she said later about your pickup line?

      Sir, where did you meet her? How do I get there? And does she have a sister?

    • ... only if you're using a computer at an institution that paid for a site license.

      The rest of us can either pay $30 for the single article, or $200 for a one year subscription.

    • Re:Full-Text (Score:4, Informative)

      by dakrin9 ( 891909 ) on Tuesday November 28, 2006 @05:14PM (#17024042)
      The continuous downscaling in microfabrication technology has enabled the creation of magnetic microstructures and nanostructures with defined sizes and shapes. These structures are currently not only implemented in applications such as data storage and non-volatile magnetic random access memory (MRAM), but also form an interesting playground for the fundamental studies of magnetism on a microscopic level.

      In thin film structures, in which the magnetostatic interactions usually force the magnetization to lie parallel to the film plane, typical magnetic configurations occur with domain structures that close the magnetic flux. Square patterns have in this case a typical Landau structure with four triangular domains separated by 90 domain walls. The magnetic vortex is located at the centre of this domain structure, where the four domains meet one another. The curling magnetization cannot stay in the plane at the very centre of the vortex structure because the short-range exchange interaction favours a parallel alignment of neighbouring magnetic moments. The magnetization turns perpendicular to the plane in an area with a radius of about 10 nm, in this way forming the vortex core7. The direction of the out-of-plane component of the magnetization is defined as the polarization of the vortex core (up or down) and gives, together with the sense of the in-plane flux closure (clockwise or anticlockwise), the ground-state configuration as illustrated in Fig. 1a-c. A magnetic vortex can store two bits of information13: the sense of the in-plane flux closure can be used as an information carrier (Fig. 1a, b)14, 15, and the out-of-plane polarization of the magnetic vortex core can also be regarded as '0' or '1' of a bit element (Fig. 1a, c). However, to switch the vortex core polarization, magnetic fields of the order of 0.5 T (refs 16, 17) are needed.
      Figure 1: Three-dimensional and two-dimensional representation of vortex and antivortex structures.
      Figure 1 : Three-dimensional and two-dimensional representation of vortex and antivortex structures. Unfortunately we are unable to provide accessible alternative text for this. If you require assistance to access this image, or to obtain a text description, please contact npg@nature.com

      Vortex (a, b and c) and antivortex (d) structures are illustrated. In both cases the magnetization turns out of the plane at the centre of the structure--either up (a, b, d) or down (c)--corresponding to the vortex core polarization p. In addition, vortex structures are characterized by an in-plane flux closure, which can be clockwise (b) or anticlockwise (a, c). A three-dimensional representation is on the left of each panel; a two-dimensional scheme is on the right. The arrows in the two-dimensional schemes represent the in-plane magnetization components; while the coloured dots represent the out-of-plane component (blue, up; red, down).
      High resolution image and legend (298K)

      Here we report on experimental studies towards an easy and reproducible switching of the vortex core polarization by low-field excitations. The dynamics in micrometre-sized and square ferromagnetic Permalloy elements with a Landau magnetic ground state were investigated. The structures were excited with an in-plane sinusoidal magnetic field resulting in a gyrotropic movement of the vortex core around the equilibrium position. As already verified in magneto-optical measurements, this in-plane gyrotropic mode is the lowest excitation mode in elements exhibiting a vortex structure (in the frequency range 100 MHz to 1 GHz (refs 18, 19)). A general theory on the dynamics of magnetic domain structures has been introduced previously8. The sense of gyration of a vortex structure is given by the gyrocoupling vector G = -2piqpUnfortunately we are unable to provide accessible alternative text for this. If you require assistance to access this image, or to obtain a text description, please contact npg@nature.com, where q is the topological vorticity, p the vortex core polarization, and Unfortunately
      • They charge for access to the full text because it is coming out in a print magazine. This is no different from copying the pictures from Playboy and handing them out for free. Do you think people will buy the magazine, or read your free copy? This kind of journal costs real money to print, and you just made it harder for them to get it.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by wass ( 72082 )
      Coincidentally, the article after this one in this week's Nature is the report about superconducting doped silicon, also on slashdot's front page from a few days ago.

  • let me guess (Score:5, Funny)

    by Kuciwalker ( 891651 ) on Tuesday November 28, 2006 @04:46PM (#17023494)
    This article was accepted just because it lets kdawson put "Quantum Vortex Cores" on the front page.
    • This article was accepted just because it lets kdawson put "Quantum Vortex Cores" on the front page.


      You're just jealous you didn't get to post about Quantum Vortex Cores!

  • Why do i get the sinking feeling (Score:3, Insightful)

    by eclectro ( 227083 ) on Tuesday November 28, 2006 @04:55PM (#17023678)
    that this either (or all) requires a tank of liquid helium, a roomful of sophisticated atomic scanning microscopes, or a highly radioactive source???

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ebyrob ( 165903 )
      Actually... I think they just rotated a field ninety degrees and tweaked out the pulse duration.

      The best solutions are often the simple ones.

    • Re:Why do i get the sinking feeling (Score:5, Funny)

      by multiplexo ( 27356 ) on Tuesday November 28, 2006 @05:30PM (#17024334) Journal

      that this either (or all) requires a tank of liquid helium, a roomful of sophisticated atomic scanning microscopes, or a highly radioactive source???

      Fuck! Are you kidding? I want all three, radioactive materials glowing Cerenkov blue in a tank of liquid helium and the atomic scanning microscopes. That would be way cooler to look at than my SAN RAIDs are, all I've got on those is a bunch of blinky LEDs, booooooooorring. Imagine how much cooler it would be to have to say "I have to replace the radioactive source in the quantum vortex core storage" instead of merely saying "Hmmmm, got a bad drive on the RAID".

      • I want my SAN to look like that large glowing pipe in Engineering which a ring of light going through it depending on how fast data is accessed*. ;-)

        * Including the 'waooom, waooom, waooom' sound :P
        • Doh, I forgot some good looking female crew member in a cat suit doing some disk* management every now and then.

          * If you believed I would make a Freudian slip here, I can tell you've got a naughty, naughty mind hehehe.
      • "I have to replace the radioactive source in the quantum vortex core storage"

        that's what I tell the users now!

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by aug24 ( 38229 )
        I always wondered when I'd meet someone who actually wanted to be Wesley Crusher.

        J.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by infolib ( 618234 )
      Yes and no. This experiment is the first of its kind. It got published in Nature. That doesn't happen unless you've got top notch people working with state-of-the-art of equipment. Not for home tinkerers.

      The big question is, can this be refined into something practical for production in a huge fab and use at home. The press release says this can be stable at high (read: room) temperature, and as far as I can tell (IAAPhysicist) this seems reasonable enough. (Refer to paramagnetic limit. [wikipedia.org]) No liquid helium

  • Get Perpendicular! (Score:5, Funny)

    by rackrent ( 160690 ) on Tuesday November 28, 2006 @04:59PM (#17023760)
    I'm totally down with it!

    Get Perpendicular! [hitachigst.com]

  • Fad... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by GWBasic ( 900357 ) <`slashdot' `at' `andrewrondeau.com'> on Tuesday November 28, 2006 @05:01PM (#17023802) Homepage

    I knew this silicon thing was such a fad!

    Now, the cool thing about magnetic core memory is that it saves its state, just like Flash. When the Computer History Museam [computerhistory.org] restored a PDP-1 [computerhistory.org], they were able to inspect the old contents of its RAM.

    • Re: (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      That is uber cool.

      ...a thousand years in the future, digital archeaologists restore an ancient computer from the 21st century. Unbeknown to them, a copy of the malevolent AI that almost wiped out humanity is still lurking in the quantum vortex core store. The AI boots, self-replicates, and tricks the humans into allowing it to escape onto the Internet...

    • Hah. Couple people I know (who were doing a repair service) bought one that had been in a fire. After they cleaned the smoke out of it they turned it on. It complained about a power-failure interrupt and went back to what it had been doing.

      (Guess the magic smoke was still inside the cores. B-) )

  • Never thought I'd see this. (Score:4, Funny)

    by FedeLebron ( 977157 ) on Tuesday November 28, 2006 @05:02PM (#17023816)
    So they finally did it. Quantum Buzzwords.

    May God help us all.
  • I know that this is all really cool, but aren't Flash Memory's days numbered? I mean, ever since Samsung made their 40-nanometer chip (http://www.physorg.com/news79719955.html [physorg.com]), I've been waiting anxiously for the Flash memory hard drive replacements. I'd give up my vortex core for a more stable and reliable storage solution, and I know many other people who would, too.
  • The paragraph said they use a scanning transmission x-ray telescope to read the gyrations (I think).

    I doubt these quantum vortex cores can be used for storage without another way of detecting them.

  • Wake me when I can buy one (Score:4, Interesting)

    by justinlindh ( 1016121 ) on Tuesday November 28, 2006 @05:24PM (#17024244)
    Seriously, how often do I hear about supposed amazing advancements in data storage and never see anything flesh out? They all promise applicability in a distant timeframe, but how many of these technologies (holographic or otherwise) have come to usable fruition?

    If 10% of the hype revolving around storage in the last 5 years materialized, I'd be storing a terrabyte on a sheet of paper spit out by a magical unicorn's ass by now.

    • Re:Wake me when I can buy one (Score:4, Informative)

      by theaikidoman ( 929353 ) <tim,jacobsen&gmail,com> on Tuesday November 28, 2006 @05:51PM (#17024724)
      average user can't afford it yes but it does not mean it is not useable. turner networks has been using holographic storage for their media for quite some time now. http://www.inphase-technologies.com/news/turnerona ir.html [inphase-technologies.com]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by kwerle ( 39371 )
      No kidding! I mean, it's been nearly 2 years since storage capacities have doubled. What the hell is taking them so long?

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by justinlindh ( 1016121 )
        My comment is more in reference to new storage technologies that are heralded as "the next big thing". We've reached the theorhetical storage capacity on the magnetic technologies, and have known the limits for a while. Sure, we've doubled magnetic storage drive capacities in the last few years, but can we go any further? What's REALLY next? It seems like I've read tens of press releases touting a breakthrough in a new form of data storage, but none ever materialize.

        Quite simply, I just get impatient and mo

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by kwerle ( 39371 )
          Fair enough, but still...

          It was paper (briefly), then tapes, then disks, then floppies and more disks and more tapes and more floppies for a long time.

          Then suddenly it was CDs! Then you could burn them! Then back to floppies and disks and even tape.

          Then they all got dirt cheap.

          Now it's DVDs! And you can burn them!

          But more interestingly, it is now NVRAM, and the NVRAM is getting to be very cheap.

          So in the past half dozen years, we've seen consumer acceptance of CD burning, the death of the floppy, we're s
      • No kidding! I mean, it's been nearly 2 years since storage capacities have doubled. What the hell is taking them so long?

        Well, PR drive are finally starting to hit the market (Barracuda 7200.10 series, the 160GB 2.5" notebook drives, etc.). So hopefully we'll finally see something bigger then a 750GB 3.5" in the next year (and the 750GB is already a PR drive). I would assume that manufacturing / process difficulties caused delays although there were no press releases or news reports about it.

        Still, P
    • And so what if they don't turn up? I see nothing wrong with being excited about the possibilities a new discovery presents. They help add easy to understand value to abstract research that may otherwise hard to understand for those who fund it. If you were a far removed executive looking at two research projects, one for low energy techniques for quantum vortex core inversion and the other for ultra high density magnetic storage, which one would you fund?

      Plus, there's the sheer fun of imagining for those o
    • Cutting edge quantum physics in the late 80's. In your hard drives since the late 90's.

      > If 10% of the hype revolving around storage in the last 5 years materialized, I'd be storing a terrabyte on a sheet of paper spit > out by a magical unicorn's ass by now.

      How'd you get ahold of my grant proposal?

  • Don't hold your breath. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Vellmont ( 569020 ) on Tuesday November 28, 2006 @05:50PM (#17024716) Homepage

      the vortex core, which has been predicted in theory for forty years, but which experiments revealed only four years ago.


    So scientists have been trying to detect it for 36 years, and only were able to do so 4 years ago? Something tells me that we won't be finding this in use for data storage anytime soon.

    Anyone know how they can detect these vortex cores? It's great that they've found a "relatively" inexpensive way to reverse the core, but if you still need a magnetic force atomic microscope to "read" the thing, I don't see much practical use to it.
  • You can read the first paragraph of the paper at Nature; subscribers can read it all
    Do you mean the Abstract?
  • The structures were excited with an in-plane sinusoidal magnetic field resulting in a gyrotropic movement of the vortex core around the equilibrium position.

    Translation: They made the suckers spin by applying AC current!

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