from the very-small-contacts dept.
OwenMcCarthy writes "The EE Times reports that researchers in Buffalo are working towards terabit/inch storage densities by applying "nanocontacts" to traditional magnetic media.
By applying atomic-dimension "nanocontacts" to magnetic media, an experiment at the State University of New York here has revealed the potential of an effect known as "ballistic magnetoresistance." The tiny metal contacts showed a 3,000 percent change in magnetoresistance at low switching fields of a few hundred oersted.
Storage density has been increasing at a startling rate in the last couple of years; it was only a matter of time before the peculiar properties of the nanoscale would be exploited toward this end.
