A kilobyte rewritable atomic memory Dr. Sander Otte | Floris Kalff MSc | Marnix Rebergen | Nora Fahrenfort Dr. Jan Girovsky | Ranko Toskovic MSc
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WHY
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Every day, modern society creates more than a billion gigabytes of new data. To cope with this ever increasing quantity of data, this new storage technique represents each bit by a single atom.
HOW
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A self-organised two-dimensional layer of chlorine atoms on a copper crystal surface is manipulated with scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) technology. Uniquely, the data is stored in missing atoms (vacancies), rather than actual atoms, offering superior control and robustness.
WHEN
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A successful 1 kilobyte proof of concept with a storage density ~500 times higher as state-of-the-art hard disk drives has been developed. It is stable up to 77 K. Companies that can take on further development towards commercial application are being sought.