Scientists at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin and the French facility CNRS separated two thin layers of magnetic material using an insulator that is about a millionth of a millimetre thick, which creates a tunnel that only a few electrons can get through.
When researchers oriented the intrinsic angular momentum - or spin - of these electrons in both layers of the TMR device, a form of memory that is capable of rapid and repeated data writes is formed.
This process allows information to be stored permanently, which scientists involved in the project believe could improve random access memory.
By manipulating the electron spins using an electric field on the insulator, the tunnelling of such particles can also be influenced.
As a result of the "switched state" of the item once current is removed, scientists believe the model could be used for PC memory using very little power.
According to Tech On, the process could realise 10Gb MRAM using perpendicular magnetisation film.
