2007 Nobel Prize in Physics: Albert Fert and Peter Gruenberg

William Atkins
Tuesday, 09 October 2007 17:01

Science - Energy

The Nobel Prize in Physics for 2007 was announced on Tuesday, October 9, 2007, by the Nobel Foundation to go to French physicist Albert Fert and German physicist Peter Gruenberg. Their award goes "for the discovery of Giant Magnetoresistance."         

Fert and Gruenberg were awarded the Prize for their independent work in the field of nanotechnology during 1988, and their subsequent work jointly, that led to the technology for miniaturized hard disks. Such technology allows computer users to store and retrieve large amounts of data on very small hard drives in computers, music players, and other such electronic devices. Their work is now called giant magnetoresistance (GMR) technology, which involves a quantum mechanical effect found on thin film structures composed of alternating metal layers of ferromagnetism and non-ferromagnetism.

GMR technology takes place when minute changes in magnetic forces generate larger changes in electrical resistance. The effect allows huge amounts of information to be stored magnetically on a small surface of a hard disk, and later to be converted to electrical signals so it can be seen on a display. The popular iPod music player is one such device that uses GMR technology.

Albert Fert, born in 1938, is a professor at the University Paris-Sud (Orsay, a suburb of Paris, France) and the scientific director at the Unité Mixte de Physique CNRS/THALES (Orsay, France).

Peter Gruenberg, born in 1939, is a professor at the Forschungszentrum Jülich (Jülich, Germany).

Additional information on the two men can be found at the NobelPrize.org website: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2007/.