Recherche

Extract from the magazine FUTURE, issue 5, 2007.

Research and development in the area of nanoelectronics is already well advanced at Thales Research & Technology (TRT), with extensive research conducted into ferromagnetic materials, in which is manipulated the ‘spin' of electrons - known as ‘spintronics' [‘spin-based electronics'], as well as giant magnetoresistance (GMR), both of which have far-reaching applications.

GMR was discovered in 1988 as the result of a joint research initiative by Albert Fert and his team (CNRS/Université Paris-Sud 11), and Thales (then Thomson-CSF) - Fert is now scientific director of the Unité Mixte de Physique CNRS/Thales (a joint physics laboratory set up by Thales and the French National Research Agency CNRS, in association with Université Paris-Sud).

Albert Fert was part of the team that first saw the large effect of GMR in multilayers - which led to his coining the term, in fact - and went on to successfully explain the physics involved. His nanoscience research, and particularly his discovery of GMR, has had an enormous impact on information and communication technologies. "This technology has contributed to significant breakthroughs in large capacity storage systems and the evolution of hard drives, for example, as well as memory capacity, in the form of MRAM," Fert explains.

Since 1997, all hard drives have used magnetic heads relying on the GMR of multiple magnetic layers to read the data on the disk. The performance of these magnetic heads has made it possible to store 100 times more usable data on a disk of a given size.

In addition, work conducted by Fert and his team covers the application of these devices in high-density electronics as well as consumer-level magnetic sensors

(cable detection, car sensors, etc) and professional magnetic sensors, among others. His work had such an impact that after having been awarded the 2007 Japan Prize for having "advanced the frontiers of knowledge and served the cause of peace and prosperity for mankind", he has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2007.