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13.02.2013

Nobel Laureate Peter Grünberg - A Portrait

Today hard drives holding terabytes of data are taken for granted. However, they were first made possible by a pioneering breakthrough in physics - by the Frenchman Albert Fert and the German Peter Grünberg. In 1988, independently of one another and almost simultaneously, they discovered the giant magnetoresistance effect. Nineteen years later they received the Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery.

The Giant Magnetoresistance

Peter Grünberg ©Forschungszentrum Jülich

Giant magnetoresistance (GMR) is based on a layer principle: two outer, magnetic layers (for example, made of iron) "communicate" with one another through an intermediate layer (for example, made of chromium) that is only a few nanometres thick. The effective magnetic forces are so weak that they can easily be changed by external influences. The GMR effect facilitated the development of highly responsive sensors that can read the minutest magnetic cells of the respective storage medium. IBM was able to present the first drive that used the GMR effect in 1997. Its discovery by Fert and Grünberg also opened the door for a new area of electronics called spintronics.

Spintronics exploits the intrinsic spin of the electron, which can be used to store information magnetically independently of whether electricity is switched on or off. In computing, for example, this could obviate the need for the boot process in the future. Spintronics is a key area of research at the Peter Grünberg Institute (PGI), which was formed in 2011 as a result of the amalgamation of the Institute of Solid State Research (IFF) and the Institute of Bio- and Nanosystems (IBN) and named after the 2007 Physics Nobel laureate. The new institute conducts research of the highest international standard in nine divisions - ranging from bioelectronics to theoretical nanoelectronics.

Biography

18 May 1939: born in Pilsen (today Plzen in the Czech Republic) // 1946: resettlement in Lauterbach (Hesse) // 1959 to 1969: studied physics in Frankfurt am Main and Darmstadt // 1969 to 1972: postdoctoral fellow at Carleton University in Ottawa // 1972 to 2004: research scientist at the Institute of Solid State Research of the Forschungszentrum Jülich // 2004: retired // 2007: holder of the first Helmholtz Professorship at the Forschungszentrum Jülich.

The Peter Grünberg Institute

The Peter Grünberg Institute (PGI) is dedicated to fundamental research on novel physical concepts and emerging materials in information technology and related fields. It also provides a state-of-the-art platform for the development of process technologies, devices and innovative nanoelectronic material systems.