Discovery of Giant Magnetoresistance gets 2007 Physics Nobel Prize

The discovery of Giant Magnetoresistance (GMR) which makes tiny hard-disks, like the one used in iPods and MP3 players possible, gets the Nobel Prize in Physics 2007.

Two European scientists, Albert Fert from Université Paris-Sud; Unité Mixte de Physique CNRS/THALES, Orsay, France, and Peter Grünberg from Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany share the $1.5 million prize.

They discovered GMR simultaneously and independently about 20 years ago.
It is based on the large effect of small magnetic differences on electric resistances. Previously magnetic induction was the technology used to read and write to magnetic disks.
In magnetic induction differences in magnetic field lead to electric currents. GMR can detect much smaller differences than magnetic induction.
The use of Giant Magnetoresistance is regarded as the first major application of nanotechnology.
Hard-disks for home use now reaches a Terabyte, or one thousand billion bytes.

Downloadable Pdf documents from Nobelprize.org:

• Prize Announcement

• Information for the Public

• Scientific Background