Nobel Prize for Physics 2007

Albert Fert Peter Grünberg

Giant Magneto-Resistance: Why do you own a bit of yesterday's Nobel prize?

Electron spins

• A model is a spinning ball of negative charge

• Electron in a magnetic field can spin up or down: ie.e. aligned or opposing the field

Ferromagnetism

Ferromagnets: field exists in absence of external field
Electron spins are aligned

• Which can be used to store information at huge density on a hard drive:

  IBM

• Ipod would be impossible without it (B$1.9 in 2007!)
• Oh, and Peter Grünberg worked at Carleton (in chemistry) for 3 years.