More about the Programme
High density magnetic recording systems require high technology in recording and reading heads and in magnetic media. The storage density increases by about 60 per cent each year. Nowadays, this storage density is about 0.2 Gbit/cm², so one storage bit takes up 0.5 µm². In about 10 years, one storage bit is expected to cover an area of 100x100 nm². With decreasing sensor geometries and increasing media storage densities, fluctuations on the nm scale of anisotropies and magnetic moments as well as domain wall pinning by defects become increasingly limiting factors of performance. The main goal of this Programme is to address the anticipated fundamental problems that have to be faced so that R&D can take up this challenge in ten years.
- The Programme aims to gather leading specialists in different research fields in Europe:
- growth of metallic self-organised structures on vicinal surfaces
- magnetic domain visualisation
- X-ray magnetic dichroism
- non-linear optics in ultrathin layers with controlled roughness
- theory of nanomagnetism.
The control of these self-organised nanostructures needs highly sophisticated technology and computational methods in order to understand the fundamental phenomena which control the magnetic properties of mesoscopic structures.
