Paul Scherrer Institut Assigned Patent

Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen PSI, Switzerland, has been assigned a patent (12217774) developed by Gliga; Sebastian, Zürich, Switzerland, and Raabe; Jörg, Villnachern, Switzerland, for a “method for speed-up of magnetic signal readout from magnetic storage media by beam splitting.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method for increasing readout speed of information encoded on magnetic storage media uses contactless circularly polarized X-rays, allowing real-time, high-fidelity readout. Magnetic information is encoded by magnetization value and direction stored on magnetic tapes or disk drives. The method includes providing first c+ and second c− circularly polarized X-ray beams, orienting the first and second X-ray beams towards the magnetic tape, simultaneously reading out the first and second X-ray beams after passage through the same region of the magnetic tape while advancing the magnetic tape, and determining magnetic information by the difference between two readout signals from the first and second x-ray beams based on X-ray magnetic circular dichroism. Based on beam splitting, real-time readout of the magnetic signal stored on the magnetic tape is achievable by intensity signal evaluation for the first and second X-ray beams.”

The patent application was filed on 2022-02-28 (18/549015).