Interviews

Materials

Albert Fert, Nobel Price in Physics 2007

"The gigas of memory will soon become an obsolete concept"

Hard drives can drastically multiply their memory capacity and occupy less space Spintronics, considered as one of the disciplines that are generating great expectations in the future, takes it success from one of the properties of electrons: their rotational energy. The French physicist Albert Fert received the Nobel Prize for pointing out some theoretical knowledge that has allowed computers to gain memory capacity with less space, and which has provided new generations of mobile telephones, video cameras and electronic panels for cars and airplanes

JORDI MONTANER | 16 june 2009

A revolution from just one minute turn.
This turn had already been identified in the 30s, but nobody thought, until half a century later, that it could displace electronics with its capacity for semi conducting materials to store much more information in less space.

The experts maintain that GMR and spintronics predict a happy marriage between basic sciences and applied technology.
It also shows the globalization of findings. The fruits of our findings have changed the way we communicate today and hence our way of life.

Some define you as a ‘science artist’.
Most probable they are referring to the fact that I have made use of previous scientific contributions in order to reformat them into what we could call “a new intellectual building”, leading to the design of new materials and technologies.

"Gigas will become an obsolete term"
Albert Fert

A future where spintronics occupies a unique space.
The revolution you mentioned in the first question has only just started. Computers, hard drives, can still multiply drastically their memory capacity and occupy much less space. Gigas will become an obsolete term. In reference to the latter is the Tunnelling Magneoresistance (TMR) and the development of the first magnetic memory (MRAM).
A revolution that does not only lead to new inventions, but also re-evaluates materials.
That’s it. Traditional copper or iron will give way to new semiconductive materials and the use of carbon nanotubes.

It will contribute that much?
The quantum calculations that we carry out will give way shortly to new molecular applications that have never before been related to the electronic field…We will not only revolutionise communications or information technology, but also those media tools perceived as out of date like radio waves.

How do we define spintronics?
As an interface between magnetic physics and electronics.

And which takes the electron as the main character.
Exactly. An electron creates something more than an electromagnetic field. Spintronics is based in the application of a physical formula of Planck to a current of electrons with a polarized turn, causing a signal capable of duplicating the bandwidth of a cable. The simplest ways to reproduce this current is from iron magnetic materials that filters electrodes uniformly.

With industrial applications that have changed our life
The most important industrial application is the capacity of massive storage, i.e. hard drives. The revolution on the electronic field stems from 2002, when the multinational IBM announced that it was able to compress 155,000 million bits in 1 cm².

Ideally the university and the company should work closely together

Did anything in your life change when you received the Nobel Prize?
Since I was awarded the price I have received a lot of offers to hold conferences or sponsor industrial projects. Everything takes its time.

What types of projects?
Companies like Sony or Hitachi, in Japan, have proposed to materialise some of my proposals based on spintronics.

And when one reaches this point, what is more powerful, the industry or the university?
Ideally, it should be like in France or Germany, where the industrial world and the university collaborate closely together. Approximately since I started at the university (40 years ago), companies like Thomson-CSF, Philips or Siemens are interested in the university projects and offer their support; not just financially, but also with infrastructure and logistics support

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