Memory devices based on magnetism are one of the core technologies of the computing industry, and engineers are working to develop new forms of magnetic memory that are faster, smaller, and more energy efficient than today’s flash and SDRAM memory.

According to the article, “Nanoscale spin wave localization using ferromagnetic resonance force microscopy,” by H-J. Chia, F. Guo, L.M. Belova, and R. D. McMichael (Physical Review Letters, 2012), they now have a new tool developed by a team from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the University of Maryland Nanocenter, and the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden—a method to detect defects in magnetic structures as small as a tenth of a micrometer even if the region in question is buried inside a multilayer electronic device.

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