Tiny laser-activated magnets can process data up to 100 times faster than current technologies – Innovation Toronto

Tiny, laser-activated magnets could enable cloud computing systems to process data up to 100 times faster than current technologies, a study suggests.

This could enable people using cloud data systems to load large files in seconds instead of minutes, researchers say.

A team led by Edinburgh scientists created the material – known as a single-molecule magnet – in the lab.

The compound is composed mainly of the element manganese, which is named after the Latin word magnes, which means magnet.

The team’s findings suggest that data could be stored and accessed on the magnets using laser pulses lasting one millionth of a billionth of a second.

They estimate this could enable hard drives fitted with the magnets to process data up to 100 times faster than current technologies.

The development could also improve the energy efficiency of cloud computing systems, the team says, which collectively emit as much carbon as the aviation industry.

There is an ever-increasing need to develop new ways of improving data storage devices. Our findings could increase the capacity and energy efficiency of hard drives used in cloud-based storage servers, which require tremendous amounts of power to operate and keep cool. This work could help scientists develop the next generation of data storage devices.

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