Reading Magnetic Memory

David Eastwood is a post-graduate student working with Professor Brian Tanner at the University of Durham. David used I16 to carry out detailed examinations of new sensors to be used in computer components that ‘read’ the magnetic information stored in its memory.

The sensors have been developed by a group in the U.S. and are made up of minutely thin films of magnetic materials. The sensitivity of the sensor is dependent on the structure and quality of these layers, therefore understanding the properties of these ‘magnetic sandwiches’ will be crucial to developing more sensitive components.

David explains, "We continually have to improve the sensitivity of the sensors used to read magnetic information because the density of data on computer hard discs has been doubling about every 18 months and continues to do so, driven by demand for ever higher performance computers and ever smaller portable media devices."