July 8, 2012

Nature: Molecule Changes Magnetism and Conductance




Nature: Molecule Changes Magnetism and Conductance

By Electricity, Researchers Switch the Magnetic State and Electric Resistance of a Single Molecule on and off/Blueprint for Novel, Compact Storage Media

One bit of digital information stored on a hard disk currently consists of about 3 million magnetic atoms. Researchers from Karlsruhe, Strasbourg, and Japan have now developed a mag-netic memory with one bit per molecule. By an electric pulse, the metal-organic molecule can be switched reliably between a conductive, magnetic state and a low-conductive, non-magnetic state. This novel correlation for molecules is now reported in the Nature Communications journal. (doi: 10.1038/ncomms1940)

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