The Discovery of Giant Magnetoresistance

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2007 jointly to

Albert Fert
Unité Mixte de Physique CNRS/THALES, Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France,

and

Peter Grünberg
Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany,

"for the discovery of Giant Magnetoresistance".

 

Nanotechnology gives sensitive read-out heads for compact hard disks

This year's physics prize is awarded for the technology that is used to read data on hard disks. It is thanks to this technology that it has been possible to miniaturize hard disks so radically in recent years. Sensitive read-out heads are needed to be able to read data from the compact hard disks used in laptops and some music players, for instance.

In 1988 the Frenchman Albert Fert and the German Peter Grünberg each independently discovered a totally new physical effect – Giant Magnetoresistance or GMR. Very weak magnetic changes give rise to major differences in electrical resistance in a GMR system. A system of this kind is the perfect tool for reading data from hard disks when information registered magnetically has to be converted to electric current. Soon researchers and engineers began work to enable use of the effect in read-out heads. In 1997 the first read-out head based on the GMR effect was launched and this soon became the standard technology. Even the most recent read-out techniques of today are further developments of GMR.

A hard disk stores information, such as music, in the form of microscopically small areas magnetized in different directions. The information is retrieved by a read-out head that scans the disk and registers the magnetic changes. The smaller and more compact the hard disk, the smaller and weaker the individual magnetic areas. More sensitive read-out heads are therefore required if information has to be packed more densely on a hard disk. A read-out head based on the GMR effect can convert very small magnetic changes into differences in electrical resistance and there-fore into changes in the current emitted by the read-out head. The current is the signal from the read-out head and its different strengths represent ones and zeros.

The GMR effect was discovered thanks to new techniques developed during the 1970s to produce very thin layers of different materials. If GMR is to work, structures consisting of layers that are only a few atoms thick have to be produced. For this reason GMR can also be considered one of the first real applications of the promising field of nanotechnology.

Read more about this year's prize

Information for the Public (pdf)

Scientific Background (pdf)

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Links and Further Reading

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Albert Fert, French citizen. Born 1938 in Carcassonne, France. Ph.D. in 1970 at Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France. Professor at Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France, since 1976. Scientific director of Unité mixte de physique CNRS/Thales, Orsay, France, since 1995.
www2.cnrs.fr/en/338.htm

Peter Grünberg, German citizen. Born 1939 in Pilsen. Ph.D. in 1969 at Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany. Professor at Institut für Festkörperforschung, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany, since 1972.
www.fz-juelich.de/portal/gruenberg_e


Prize amount: SEK 10 million to be shared equally between the Laureates

Contact persons: Erik Huss, Press Officer, Phone +46 8 673 95 44, mobile +46 70 673 96 50, erik.huss@kva.se
Ulrika Björkstén, Scientific editor, mobile +46 70 206 67 50, ulrika.bjorksten@kva.se

Teknologi Kapal Luar Angkasa V

Mars Orbiter Examines 'Lace' and 'Lizard Skin' Terrain

Added and Edited By:

Arip Nurahman Department of Physics, Faculty of sciences and Mathematics

Indonesia University of Education
&
Follower Open Course Ware at MIT-Harvard University, U.S.A.

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12.03.09	Lecture series: Monitoring Earth's Changing Land Surface

SAN FRANCISCO - Scrutiny by NASA's newest Mars orbiter is helping scientists learn the stories of some of the weirdest landscapes on Mars, as well as more familiar-looking parts of the Red Planet.

One type of landscape near Mars' south pole is called "cryptic terrain" because it once defied explanation, but new observations bolster and refine recent interpretations of how springtime outbursts of carbon-dioxide gas there sculpt intricate patterns and paint seasonal splotches.

"A lot of Mars looks like Utah, but this is an area that looks nothing like Planet Earth," said Candice Hansen of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., deputy principal investigator for the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

In addition to radially branching patterns called "spiders," which had been detected by an earlier Mars orbiter, other intriguing ground textures in the area appear in the new images. "In some places, the channels form patterns more like lace. In others, the texture is reminiscent of lizard skin," Hansen said.

Results from all six instruments on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which reached Mars last year, are described in dozens of presentations this week by planetary scientists in San Francisco at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

This is a perspective view of a scene within Mars' Candor Chasma. It shows how the surface would appear to a person standing on top of one of the many hills in the region and facing southeast. Image credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
› Full image and caption
By taking stereo pictures of a target area from slightly different angles during different orbits, HiRISE can show the surface in three dimensions. Channels found to widen as they run uphill in the cryptic terrain region testify that the channels are cut by a gas, not a liquid.

Earlier evidence for jets of gas active in the region came from fan-shaped blotches appearing seasonally, which scientists interpret as material fallen to the surface downwind of vents where the gas escapes. Some of the fans are dark, others bright. "The dark fans are probably dust, but the exact composition of the brighter fans had remained unknown until now," said Tim Titus of the U.S. Geological Survey's Astrogeology Team, Flagstaff, Ariz.

Observations by the new orbiter's Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars suggest that the bright fans are composed of carbon-dioxide frost. Here's the story researchers now propose: Spring warms the ground under a winter-formed coating of carbon dioxide ice. Thawing at the base of the coating generates carbon-dioxide gas, which carves channels as it pushes its way under the ice to a weak spot where it bursts free. The jet of escaping gas carries dust aloft and also cools so fast from expanding rapidly that a fraction of the carbon dioxide refreezes and falls back to the surface as frost.

The processes creating the cryptic terrain are current events on Mars. Repeated HiRISE observations of the same target area show the downwind fans can form and grow perceptibly in less than five days.

Other new findings from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reveal processes of Martian environments long ago. A team including Chris Okubo of the University of Arizona, Tucson, used stereo HiRISE images to examine layered deposits inside Mars' Candor Chasma, part of Valles Marineris, the largest canyon system in the solar system.

"The high-resolution structural map allowed us to interpret the geological history of the area," Okubo said. "The layers are tilted in a way that tells us they are younger than the canyon." Spectrometer studies of the composition of these deposits had indicated water played a role in their formation, but their age relative to the formation of the canyon had been uncertain. The new findings suggest water was present after the canyon formed.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The University of Arizona operates the HiRISE camera, which was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corp., Boulder, Colo. The Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars team, led by Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory, includes expertise from universities, government agencies and small businesses in the United States and abroad.



JPL HIGHER EDUCATION

JPL's Higher Education Group facilitates interactions among colleges and universities (including Caltech) and NASA's Education Office to develop and administer educational programs and research opportunities. The goal is to promote a deeper understanding of the NASA mission by all participants and inspire them to pursue related careers or projects in science, engineering, and technology.

While at JPL, most of the participants are JPL affiliates, not JPL employees, and most of their activities take place during several weeks of the summer. All of the programs have eligibility requirements and schedules that applicants must meet in order to be accepted, and awards are competitive.

To get started, visit Find Your Place at JPL, a site geared for students and professionals who are interested in finding out how their field of study fits into JPL’s matrix environment.

The Pre-college Bridge Programs are for students just graduated from high school and on their way to college but not yet enrolled.

The Undergraduate Student Programs offer research challenges to rising college sophomores, juniors, and seniors.

The Graduate Student Programs are for students pursuing degrees beyond the baccalaureate who seek opportunities for summer research projects or for extended collaboration with JPL technical staff tied to their graduate research projects.

The Postdoctoral Programs are primarily, but not solely, for recent recipients of doctoral degrees who are looking for extended research opportunities [two to three years] before accepting or returning to permanent positions in industry, academia, or at federally-funded research and development centers like JPL.

The Faculty Programs accept people in teaching and/or research positions at U. S. academic institutions who want to collaborate with JPL technical staff for professional advancement or to enhance their effectiveness as teachers.

Research Affiliate positions are available to selected scholars able to spend time at JPL conducting projects in concert with JPL technical staff.

A variety of Minority University Programs offer opportunities not different in kind from those mentioned above, but with different sources of support and with the emphasis on increasing the diversity of the NASA/JPL workforce.

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Sumber:

Media Contact: Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

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Teknologi Kapal Luar Angkasa IV

The House of More Than a Decade of Tomorrows

Added and Edited By:

Arip Nurahman Department of Physics, Faculty of sciences and Mathematics

Indonesia University of Education

The House of More Than a Decade of Tomorrows

Pat Troutman leads a group of engineers in designing work facilities and exploration capabilities for astronauts on the moon and, eventually, Mars. But, he warns, "What I think they'll look like today is not what they're going to look like tomorrow. What we write down on the board really establishes the functions that they're going to have to do, but there are a thousand different answers to how you can do a specific function." Credit: NASA/Sean Smith.

Like nature, Pat Troutman abhors a vacuum.

"I get so bored when things don't change within a week," says Troutman, laughing, which he does easily.

Embracing change is a requirement for his job: leading surface architecture integration for the Space Mission Analysis Branch. In that position, he oversees the creation process of the architecture that will be used when NASA goes back to the moon in 2020.

The work has generated models of what astronauts could live in on the moon, but Troutman quickly disabuses anyone's notion that any of those models will become the lunar home. "What I think they'll look like today is not what they're going to look like tomorrow," he says. "What we write down on the board really establishes the functions that they're going to have to do, but there are a thousand different answers to how you can do a specific function."

And then those answers can change with technological advances.

"What if, say, the automotive industry develops a fuel cell that's 10 times more efficient than what we've got?" Troutman asks. "Can I adapt that to the lunar surface, and how does that change how we build things?"

And answers can change with new partners.

"Let's say NASA might be the lead architect," he says, "but just like the space station, to be robust and sustainable, the more buy-in you have, the more players, the better off it is."

Answers can change with bosses.

"Whatever we come up with has to be palpable, doable, acceptable and affordable through multiple administrations," says Troutman, who has worked at NASA Langley Research Center for 23 years.

And answers can even change with destinations.

"There are a whole set of people out there who say we should be going to Mars first," he says. "Everything we've been working on up to now is perfectly applicable to Mars. There's no lost work there."

For now, though, the mission is to go back to the moon, which some critics argue is merely a repeat of Apollo and the 1960s. But it's so much more, and that more is what drives the architects. "Just to repeat Apollo is not enough," Troutman says. "We have to do more than that. We're going to go back, but this time we're going to stay around and explore."

The architects pick the brains of the Apollo-era engineers, and they listen to pronouncements of futurists who speak of cities on the moon, but their goal is something in between.

Troutman calls it establishing an "outpost."

"It's just a forward base to enhance exploration," he says. "It's a place that you can return to time and time again to facilitate your mission."

Living off the land on the lunar surface, artist's concept. Credit: NASA

In that mission, four people will land on the moon and stay for extended periods, exploring and -- just as important -- getting used to living away from Earth. While the International Space Station has provided some of that education, it's still only a two-day flight from Kennedy Space Center.

But the moon is four days each way, and Mars is a year going and nine months returning, with stays of up to 500 days in between.

"On all of these trips, whether it's to the moon or to Mars or to ... some other solar system, forget Mother Earth," Troutman says. "You can't call her up and have her deliver a pizza. You're on your own, and you have to live with what you bring with you."

Or, in this case, what you might send ahead.

In NASA, it's called in-situ resource utilization, and exploration officials muse about "living off the land." Actually, it's living off the land and what you brought to it.

"One of the things we bring with us every time we bring someone to the moon is a two- or three-story lander full of tanks, materials, residual hydrogen and oxygen and stuff," Troutman says. "That's the first thing we're going to do in in-situ resource utilization. We're going to scavenge the heck out of that thing."

The idea is to design the habitat with interchangeable parts. Each lander then becomes a supply house for the next lander, offering computers and avionics equipment, hydrogen and oxygen, parts and pieces.

"That way," says Troutman, "when something goes out in the habitat, I can go out to the junkyard, pull one out and replace it."

The idea is to have a place to stay for the astronauts set up before they get to the moon.

"The way we're structuring the architecture right now -- and remember, that's at this moment; 10 years from now it might not be like that -- is we're doing something called an integrated cargo pallet," Troutman says. "This pallet has power and communications that are designed to work on the moon. And we're designing it so that it works with any lunar outpost element."

The pallet is taken aloft by an Ares V rocket, and it's taken to the lunar surface by the lander.

"That's something they couldn't do with Apollo," Troutman says. "We have technology that (allows us to) push a button and go land on the moon at a certain spot. It took people to do that with Apollo."

Once the habitat is in place, the astronauts who are propelled aloft by Ares I can land on the moon.

Getting around on the lunar surface, artist's concept. Credit: NASA

"When they get there, there's a habitat, there's power, there's hot and cold running water, there's a bathroom and stuff," says Troutman. "So all they have to bring is themselves. The Orion crew exploration vehicle and another lander act as an Earth-moon taxi. They take the four-day trip to the moon and they come down and hop out and just go live in this. … And we're not going to send any people to the moon or Mars until we know there's a fully functioning habitat waiting for them."

The living's not easy, but it is adequate.

"The Ares V is up to a 10-meter (cargo) shroud, which is 33 feet (in diameter)," Troutman says. "The back of my house is 60 or 70 feet, so it's half my house long. And you can get almost a two-story-high building in that thing. For four people, that's pretty good living."

It's also a different way of life for the four people than any of their space predecessors have lived. For one thing, they're going to have to be handy around the house, fixing things on the fly. Lessons from the International Space Station have showed them the way.

"One of the things we've learned from space station is that they've spent precious time fixing it," says Troutman, who worked on the station's design. "It's important to consider methods and techniques for repairing and sustaining it. Stuff breaks down, and we've learned a lot of lessons about sustainability and operability that we'll apply to the lunar surface."

In that, NASA's partners on the space station have an example.

"The Russians have a great philosophy," Troutman says. "When something goes wrong, they're generalists. They don't go back to Earth and say, 'come up with a procedure for fixing this.' They try to get it to work first, and that's what our lunar astronauts are going to have to do."

It's all so new, and yet it's not. Though many would believe that the notion of returning to the moon and then going on to Mars is three years old and began with President Bush's "Vision" speech on Jan. 14, 2004. But Troutman reminds that the "S" in NASA is an indicator that exploring space is never far out of the minds of the agency's scientists and engineers.

"(Werner) Von Braun's intent always was to continue on through the moon and to Mars and to spread human society all throughout the solar system and beyond," he says. "It never died after Apollo. It just goes into hibernation at various stages."

So the architects use the work of various study groups, that of Apollo and of missions since. And they try to understand what the future might -- or might not -- hold.

NASA Langley Research Center Office of Education

The Office of Education is part of the NASA Langley Research Center's Office of Strategic Communications and Education, or OSCE.
OSCE provides a wide range of services in public and media relations, formal and informal education activities and Agency leadership responsibilities for NASA's Digital Learning Network and NASA's Aerospace Education Services Project.
Langley's educational initiatives have produced a number of innovative, highly-successful programs.
The experienced, professional staff at Langley supports many NASA educational projects. They have also developed several programs that have been adopted by other NASA Centers.
Langley has been a NASA leader in the use and integration of instructional technologies in K-12 education.
Langley's instructional television programs -- Digital Media Lab and Technology Immersion Workshops -- continue to provide students and educators with outstanding multimedia and interactive resources featuring NASA personel, facilities and research.
In terms of higher education programs, the Langley-developed Pre-Service Teacher Project -- with its annual national conference and summer institutes at Langley and other Centers -- has acquainted thousands of pre-professional teachers with NASA's rich array of educational materials.
Contact Us:
Office of Education
NASA Langley Research Center
100 NASA Road
Hampton, VA 23681-2199

Phone: (757) 864-6300
Fax: (757) 864-6521

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  Langley’s Crew Module and Launch Abort System Stacked on Ares I-X

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Jim Hodges
The Researcher News
NASA Langley Research Center

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