What do digital cameras, computer game devices, laptop computers, and portable music players have in common? They all use magnetic disk drives that rely on magnetostrictive read heads. "The read head is like a jet flying at supersonic speeds a meter above a pasture and counting the grass blades pointing in two different directions," says Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) researcher Bill Butler. He says electronic devices relying on magnetostrictive read heads are about to hit a wall as their disk drives get smaller and smaller. The reader, which works with the read head, is a device consisting of nickel iron and cobalt layers separated by copper spacers only a few nanometers thick. As disk drives downsize, the materials from which they are made approach their fundamental performance limits. "At just a few nanometers, you reach the superparamagnetic limit," says ORNL physicist Malcolm Stocks. "At that point, the magnetic properties are no longer stable." ORNL and the Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory are collaborating for the purpose of overcoming the limits. The government researchers are working with private companies and examining the structure of magnetic materials at the atomic scale so that designers of magnetic media may continue shrinking the size of disk drives. ORNL is using an IBM supercomputer for modeling the interfaces between silicon and silicon dioxide as well as helping design structures for smaller read heads. Using computer simulation, ORNL researchers obtained insight into anti-ferromagnetism in iron manganese. The new structures may contain iron, manganese, and rare-earth thin films that offer higher magnetic saturation. For more information, call (865) 574-5163, visit www.ornl.gov or write to ORNL, Box 2008, Oak Ridge, TN 37831.
By experimenting with the photovoltaic reaction in solar cells, researchers at MIT have made a breakthrough in energy efficiency that significantly pushes the boundaries of current commercial cells on the market.
In a world that's going green, industrial operations have a problem: Their processes involve materials that are potentially toxic, flammable, corrosive, or reactive. If improperly managed, this can precipitate dangerous health and environmental consequences.
With LEDs dropping in price virtually every year, automakers have begun employing them, not only on luxury vehicles, but on entry-level models, as well.
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A quick look into the merger of two powerhouse 3D printing OEMs and the new leader in rapid prototyping solutions, Stratasys. The industrial revolution is now led by 3D printing and engineers are given the opportunity to fully maximize their design capabilities, reduce their time-to-market and functionally test prototypes cheaper, faster and easier. Bruce Bradshaw, Director of Marketing in North America, will explore the large product offering and variety of materials that will help CAD designers articulate their product design with actual, physical prototypes. This broadcast will dive deep into technical information including application specific stories from real world customers and their experiences with 3D printing. 3D Printing is
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