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A molecule-sized magnetic sensor

By Oli Usher, on 26 January 2015

STM image of iron phtalocyanine. Credit: Ben Warner, Fadi El Hallak and Cyrus Hirjibehedin (LCN)

STM image of iron phtalocyanine. Credit: Ben Warner, Fadi El Hallak and Cyrus Hirjibehedin (LCN)

This image shows a scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) image of a molecule of iron phtalocyanine, separated from an underlying layer of copper by a thin barrier of copper nitride.

The image is part of a new piece of research just published by UCL scientists. The iron phtalocyanine molecule forms part of a tiny magnetic sensor which is sufficiently sensitive that it can detect molecule-sized magnetic fields. This technology could allow far smaller hard disks and new computer memory designs.

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