(June 3, 2016) Davide Bossini from the University of Tokyo has found a possible solution to control the demand for smaller, faster, devices to store, manage, and process data in data centers without compromising cooling.
“A way to store information in a particularly tiny area is by taking advantage of the fact that individual electrons possess magnetization, which is called their spin,” said Bossini, “The research field of spin electronics, or “spintronics,” works on developing the ability to control the direction of electrons’ spins in a faster and more energy efficient way.”
“I work to control electrons’ spins using extremely short laser pulses – one quadrillionth of a second in duration, or one “femtosecond”,” Bossini added, “Beyond just enabling smaller storage, lasers allow dramatically faster storage and retrieval of data.”
This means, “if the all-optical method is used to store information in materials that are transparent to light, little or no heating occurs,” reported Phys.org. Given the economic and environmental costs presented by the need for massive data-center cooling systems, this is an obvious, huge benefit.
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