Monomolecular magnets

2000/05/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Fisika

A team of chemists from the University of Indiana has invented a system to create magnets formed by a single molecule. The system uses manganese and is cheaper and efficient than other methods.

Unimolecular magnets (SMM) can be used to store digital information, i.e., as a storage material for hard drives, DVDs, etc. So far, magnetic nanoparticles formed by metals, alloys or metallic oxides have been used, but the magnetic molecules present numerous advantages such as their much smaller size, uniformity and the dissolution capacity in organic compounds. The use of these molecules allows drastically reducing memory deposits.

If last year the company IBM managed to introduce 3 gigabit (3 billion bits) in a square centimeter, thanks to the magnetic molecules will soon be able to easily overcome this brand.