Jordi Sort - "From basic concepts to the state-of-the-art in magnetic computation"

In this seminar Jordi Sort, ICREA researcher and Professor at Physics Department of Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, will talk about magnetism.


All materials that exist in nature exhibit some kind of magnetic behaviour, i.e., they respond to the application of an external magnetic field in one way or another. The Earth as a whole can be considered as a "big" magnet, able to deviate and protect us from cosmic rays and offering the possibility, since ancient times, to guide us by the use of simple instruments like a needle or the compass. In fact, magnetic phenomena go much beyond the simple use of permanent magnets to stick objects to the fridge. Recent results suggest that magnetism was already present during the first stages of the creation of galaxies, it is inherent to the electric activity of neurones, and it has found widespread practical applications in hard disks for computers, robotic platforms for drug delivery in biomedicine, or to guide electron beams for generating synchrotron light. Permanent magnetic materials, made simply of FeNi (i.e., sustainable compositions, free from rare-earths) and being as strong as the FeNdB or SmCo alloys developed in the Earth, can be found in meteorites. Intense research efforts are now being devoted by several groups to artificially "mimic" the microstructures of these exotic hard magnetic Fe-Ni phases in order to produce "environmentally sustainable" and cost-effective magnets.

In this talk, Sort will overview some general aspects of magnetism in the universe and he will describe some general phenomenology related to magnetic materials, with emphasis put on the applications of ferromagnetic dots in magnetic recording. He will also revise the evolution of computation over the years, since the very first "mechanical" computers (manufactured prior to the Second World War) until the first prototypes of "quantum" computers developed recently (still only operative at very low temperatures). Particular emphasis will be on "magnetic" hard disks and the drastic increase of areal bit density/year that has led to the advent of "big data" and "artificial intelligence". It will be also emphasized the problem of energy-efficiency in magnetic actuation and spintronic devices and Sort will overview some recent strategies to decrease the power consumption of personal computers and cell phones, a field in which his group is actively pursuing research at the moment.

Talk in Catalan. Slides in English.

ALBA Talks - Seminarios internos

Basándose en la serie anterior de seminarios internos, que se realizaron entre el 2012-2013, un nuevo ciclo de seminarios se dirige a todo el personal del Sincrotrón ALBA.

El objetivo del proyecto es compartir conocimientos sobre las actividades que desarrollan las diferentes divisiones del Sincrotrón ALBA y mejorar la cultura científica de todos los miembros del personal.

Los seminarios se celebrarán los viernes a las 12:00 h y dura cada uno de ellos menos de una hora.