NANO TECHNOLOGY:

NANO TECHNOLOGY: "Computing applications

RAM – random access memory – is used when someone enters information or gives a command to the computer. It can be written to as well as read but - with standard commercial technology - holds its content only while powered by electricity.

Argonne materials scientists have created and are studying nanoscale crystals of ferroelectric materials that can be altered by an electrical field and retain any changes.

Ferroelectric materials – so called, because they behave similarly to ferromagnetic materials even though they don't generally contain iron – consist of crystals whose low symmetry causes spontaneous electrical polarization along one or more of their axes. The application of voltage can change this polarity. Ferroelectric crystals can also change mechanical to electrical energy– the piezoelectric effect – or electrical energy to optical effects.

A strong external electrical field can reverse the plus and minus poles of ferroelectric polarization. The crystals hold their orientation until forced to change by another applied electric field. Thus, they can be coded as binary memory, representing 'zero' in one orientation and 'one' in the other.

Because the crystals do not revert spontaneously, RAM made with them would not be erased should there be a power failure. Laptop computers would no longer need back-up batteries, permitting them to be made still smaller and lighter. There would be a similar impact on cell phones."