Albert Fert

Albert Fert is a French physicist who shared the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics with Peter Grünberg for discovering giant magnetoresistance, a large change in electrical resistance in magnetic multilayers.

Peter Grünberg: Peter Grünberg was a German physicist who shared the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering giant magnetoresistance. Grünberg independently discovered giant magnetoresistance in magnetic multilayers in 1988.
Giant magnetoresistance: Giant magnetoresistance is a large resistance change in alternating magnetic and nonmagnetic thin films as magnetic layers realign. This is the specific phenomenon Fert and Grünberg discovered independently in 1988.
1988 Nobel Prize in Physics: The 1988 Nobel Prize in Physics honored discoveries concerning the quantum Hall effect. It preceded Fert’s recognition and illustrates the Nobel committee’s separate focus on condensed-matter physics.
Hard disk drive: A hard disk drive stores digital data magnetically on rotating platters and reads it with a magnetic sensor. Giant magnetoresistance read heads enabled much denser magnetic data storage.
Jules J. J. van der Molen: Jules J. J. van der Molen is a Dutch physicist whose work concerns nanoscale magnetism and spin transport. Fert’s research group helped train and collaborate with scientists in the wider spintronics community.
Spin-dependent scattering: Spin-dependent scattering occurs when electrons with different spin orientations experience different probabilities of scattering. It produces the resistance contrast between magnetic configurations in Fert’s multilayers.
Giant magnetoresistance discovery: The giant magnetoresistance discovery was the 1988 observation of a large resistance change in magnetic multilayers. Fert’s team reported its result in iron–chromium multilayers in 1988.
Magnetic read head: A magnetic read head senses the magnetic patterns that encode data on a storage medium. Giant magnetoresistance made read heads more sensitive to tiny recorded magnetic fields.
Spintronics: Spintronics is the study and use of electron spin alongside electric charge in electronic devices. Fert became a leading figure in the field that grew from giant magnetoresistance.
Electron spin: Electron spin is an intrinsic quantum property that gives electrons angular momentum and magnetic moment. Giant magnetoresistance depends on how spin orientations affect electron transport.

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Magnetoresistive random-access memoryRelated: His work helped launch the spintronics research that underpins MRAM.