Storing a Bit on an Atom

Stephen Lawson reports that a team at IBM has stored a bit on an atom . The team, led by Christopher Lutz, stored a magnetic field on an atom of Holmium and read the charge using a single iron atom.

According to Lawson, "The team just wanted to achieve the maximum possible density. Until now, no one knew how many atoms it would take to build a reliable magnetic memory bit. It turns out the answer is just one."

-DD