Magnetic Microstructure and Information Storage

高密度信息存储是关系到国际经济竞争力的新兴技术。磁性和磁光高密度存储在经济上的重要性将继续增长，至少在未来15年，也许更久。我们建议开展磁性微结构在信息存储中的应用研究项目。该研究将研究几个应该解决的基本问题，以使该技术更接近热和量子极限：物理和磁性微观结构与波动和噪声的关系的实验研究和建模有望引领具有受控和程序化微观结构的存储介质的发展。我们计划在微磁建模中引入大规模并行处理器的新型计算方法。介质和换能器微磁学的研究将面向多元件传感器。这种传感器将需要能够高密度记录跟踪的伺服系统。我们还将探索它们作为消除微观结构相关介质噪声的创新方法在自适应传感中的可能应用。这将涉及到适合这些传感器的信号处理算法的研究。即使在其中一个方向上取得突破，也会产生深远的技术和经济影响。除了这项研究预期的直接技术效益外，它还将通过其向有天赋的专业人士教授信息存储技术和磁学原理的使命，产生持久的影响。美国大学中代表性不足的工程学科严重损害了我们的国际竞争力。

High density information storage is an emerging technology crucial to international economic competitiveness. Magnetic and magneto-optic high density storage will continue to grow in economic importance for at least the next fifteen years, and perhaps beyond that. We propose to carry out a research program in magnetic microstructures as applied to information storage. The research will study several fundamental issues that should be addressed to bring the technology closer to thermal and quantum limits: Experimental investigations and modeling of the relation of physical and magnetic microstructure to fluctuations and noise is expected to lead the way to storage media with controlled and programmed microstructures. We plan to introduce novel computing methods using massively parallel processors into the micromagnetic modeling. Studies of medium and transducer micromagnetics will be aimed toward multielement sensors. Such sensors will be needed for servo systems capable of high density recording track following. We will also explore their possible application to adaptive sensing as an innovative method of eliminating microstructure related medium noise. This will involve research on signal processing algorithms appropriate to these sensors. A breakthrough in even one of these directions will have a far ranging technological and economic impact. Apart from the direct technological benefits expected from this research, it will have a lasting impact through its mission of teaching gifted professionals principles of information storage technology and magnetics, engineering disciplines that are underrepresented in United States universities to the serious detriment of our international competitiveness.