Single-domain magnetic pillar array of 35 nm diameter and 65 Gbits/in.2 density for ultrahigh density quantum magnetic storage

Abstract

Using electron beam nanolithography and electroplating, arrays of Ni pillars on silicon that have a uniform diameter of 35 nm, a height of 120 nm, and a period of 100 nm were fabricated. The density of the pillar arrays is 65 Gbits/in.²—over two orders of magnitude greater than the state‐of‐the‐art magnetic storage density. Because of their nanoscale size, shape anisotropy, and separation from each other, each Ni pillar is single domain with only two quantized perpendicular magnetization states: up and down. Each pillar can be used to store one bit of information, therefore such nanomagnetic pillar array storage offers a rather different paradigm than the conventional storage method. A quantum magnetic disk scheme that is based on uniformly embedding single‐domain magnetic structures in a nonmagnetic disk is proposed.