New order for magnetism

摘要

Physicists have come up with an innovative way of manipulating the direction of magnetization in a solid. The approach might be used to make low-power-consumption computer memory devices. On page 515 of this issue, Chiba et al. show how the direction of magnetization in a solid can be controlled electrically. The significance of this achievement lies in the fact that magnetic data-storage and memory devices, such as hard disks, depend on manipulating the direction of magnetization. But methods for doing this have so far been inefficient.