storing data in singular atoms

Question

so i just read about 5 articles on ibm storing data on singular atoms and i am so confused. Do they mean regular atoms?? like the ones that make up me and the whole world?? or does ‘atom’ mean something else in the computer world? and what do they mean by data, what kind of data? i know that this is old news but im hoping that means someone will have the answers. idk if my brain just can’t comprehend the words they were using or if it genuinely just doesn’t make sense. someone help pls☹️

In: Technology

Answer 1

To store data on something, all you need to do is be able to make that thing assume different states. On/off, high/low, black/white… as long as you can do that, you can represent information with it. Hard drives use positive/negative magnetic fields to do it. Phonographs use a needle to physically feel little grooves scraped into vinyl plastic. CDs uses lasers to read little pits (tiny grooves) and the transitions from high to low points and back are the data. Flash drives use tiny transistors that return high or low voltage when poked correctly.

Here they’re doing pretty much what hard drives do, but *tiny*.

From an article:

> IBM’s researchers found a way to magnetize individual atoms of the rare earth element holmium and use the two poles of magnetism—north and south, as you’d see on a compass—as stand-ins for the 1s and 0s. The holmium atoms are attached to a surface of another material, magnesium oxide, which holds them in place, at a chilly 5 kelvin (-450°F). Using essentially what is a very accurate, sharp, and small, needle, the researchers can pass an electrical current through the holmium atoms, which causes their north and south poles to flip, replicating the process of writing information to a traditional magnetic hard drive.

So it’s a particular atom—holmium, that is used for making very strong magnets. They figured out a way to orient the magnetic fields of individual atoms, and use a very precise instrument to electrically zap them to face one way or the other. Which way they face becomes the 1s and 0s of data.

But no, the whole thing isn’t just a string of atoms. Those atoms are arranged on many more magnesium oxide atoms, the same way the bits of magnetic iron stuff sit on some plastic ribbon to make a cassette tape.