Carbon Ring Storage Could Make Magnetic Memory 1000 Times More Dense

Here is an abstract of the research, Co dimers on hexagonal carbon rings proposed as subnanometer magnetic storage bits, authored by Ruijuan Xiao, Daniel Fritsch, Michael D. Kuz’min, Klaus Koepernik, Helmut Eschrig, Manuel Richter, Knut Vietze, and Gotthard Seifert, at the Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research in Dresden, Germany:

It is demonstrated by means of density functional and ab-initio quantum chemical calculations, that transition metal – carbon systems have the potential to enhance the presently achievable area density of magnetic recording by three orders of magnitude. As a model system, Co_2-benzene with a diameter of 0.5 nm is investigated. It shows a magnetic anisotropy in the order of 0.1 eV per molecule, large enough to store permanently one bit of information at temperatures considerably larger than 4 K. A similar performance can be expected, if cobalt dimers are deposited on graphene or on graphite. It is suggested that the subnanometer bits can be written by simultaneous application of a moderate magnetic and a strong electric field.