One to watch: nanomagnet research and manufacture
Chemist Sonia Moralejo GarcÃa a graduate in Chemical Sciences at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), defended her PhD thesis obtained excellent cum laude for having achieved a well-defined line for the manufacture of nanomagnets and other magnetic devices for wide industrial application.
García has used various techniques to analyse the manufacture of nanomagnets and magnetic devices of widespread industrial application. In The nanomanufacture and magnetic properties of nanomagnets patterned with thin films she had the benefit of a number of study-stays in two of Europe's top laboratories, : the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics in Germany and the Cavendish Laboratory of the University of Cambridge in the UK which contributed to the completion of her he work.
Her study combined scientific research and the technology related to the manufacture of nanomagnetics and magnetic devices and a complete series of techniques have been developed or readied enabling sampling from start to finish by conventional methods and with wide industrial application.
“Amongst other things," she says, "we have created a system for growing a number of materials at the same time, instead of one at a time.” Her initial materials focus ahs been Ni-Fe and Co-Fe alloys.
Their magnetic behaviour has been studied, both as continuous layers and as samples of smaller sizes (threads, circles, ellipses), varying shape and distances. Given that these have different behaviour patterns – knowing this is essential for different applications.
The magnetic behaviour of the materials was studied using hysteresis. Such magnetic behaviour enables the storage of computer hard discs in magnets: the magnetic field induces a magnetising of the small magnet – codified in a binary manner as 0 or 1 and this codification remains in the absence of the magnetic field and can subsequently be read. It can also be inverted, applying a magnetic field in the opposite sense.
The main applications of this type of nanomagnets and magnetic devices are focused on the field of storage and data treatment, hard discs.The manufacture of nanomagnets and magnetic devices at a small scale has enabled having samples to tackle problems of current interest in the field of nanomagnetism.
Given the difficulty of the thesis being involved in a new line of research for the department of Physical Chemistry at the UPV/EHU, they will now design and install new techniques and carry out trials on a wider range of materials.
Source: http://www.basqueresearch.com/berria_irakurri.asp?Berri_Kod=1630&hizk=I