IBM scientists have developed a powerful new technique for exploring and controlling magnetism at its fundamental atomic level.

The new method promises to be an important tool in the quest of understanding the operation of future computer circuit and data-storage elements as they shrink toward atomic dimensions, and also to lay the foundation for new materials and computing devices that leverage atom-scale magnetic phenomena.

"We have developed a window into the atomic heart of magnetism," said Andreas Heinrich, research staff member at IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California. "We can now position atoms and then measure and control their magnetic interactions within precisely designed structures."

The new method, called spin-excitation spectroscopy, is based on IBM's special low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope designed for use with a broad range of magnetic fields up to 140,000 times stronger than the earth's. The researchers first move atoms into position and then measure the interactions between their atomic spins, which are the fundamental sources of magnetism.

"This kind of exploratory research is essential for the long-term future of the computer industry. Sometime in the next couple of decades, it will be impossibly difficult to continue improving transistors and other traditional microelectronic circuit elements by simply shrinking them. We will then need alternative structures and, perhaps, altogether different ways of computing. Techniques like this can help us gain the knowledge needed to create those alternatives," said Gian-Luca Bona, manager of science and technology at IBM Almaden.