Laser boosted femtomagnetism could enable hard drives that are ten
thousand times faster:
"Researchers have been using laser pulses to directly modify the amount of the
interaction among the atoms to increase the exchange energy without
necessarily altering the magnetic structure of the material.
Remarkably, this happens in a time interval well below the nanosecond, as the
material response is almost entirely exhausted within the duration of the laser
pulse, less than 100 femtoseconds in the experiment (1 femtosecond is one
millionth of one billionth of a second ).
At the moment it’s all very theoretical, a “proof of principle” obtained in a lab,
making use of expensive and relatively bulky lasers, but if the past is any
indication, miniaturization will follow and these kind of applications will sooner or
later find their way to the market, as it has already happened with the ultra-
compact lasers with which we now read DVDs.
This demonstrates a new route to circumvent the hindrances of the current
magnetic storage technology, to reach writing and reading speeds up to ten
thousand times faster than those currently available."
See:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/07/las...ism-could.html