The researchers were able to record one bit of information per atom of holmium, and then to consider it.
The company announced that it has successfully managed to save the data on a single atom. According to IBM scientists – is an achievement that potentially can change the way storage devices in the future.
A team of researchers were able to put the data on a single atom of holmium, which the group was chosen because of its powerful magnetic field, which creates “a lot of unpaired electrons”. The electrons of holmium and their proximity to its nucleus gives each atom more stability than usual, and you can use it to store one bit of data. One bit was the orientation of the magnetic field of the atom holmium.
The research team used two methods to read the data, and they both showed that they are able to read single bits of data from each individual atom, as well as to rewrite data. However, to achieve such a result it took an absolute vacuum, no vibration and low temperature.
This method of writing data in theory will allow to increase the data density thousands of times: for example, to record all 35 million songs from the iTunes library on a device the size of a credit card.
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