Electric current moves magnetic vortices: With the help of neutrons, physicists discover new ways to save data

Electric current moves magnetic vortices: With the help of neutrons, physicists discover new ways to save data
One of the requirements to keep trends in computer technology on track -- to be ever faster, smaller, and more energy-efficient -- is faster writing and processing of data. In the Dec. 17 issue of the journal Science, physicists at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) and the Universitaet zu Koeln report results that could point the way to a solution. TUM physicists set a lattice of magnetic vortices in a material in motion using electric current almost a million times weaker than in earlier studies.