High density information storage is an emerging technology crucial to international economic competitiveness. Magnetic and magneto-optic high density storage will continue to grow in economic importance for at least the next fifteen years, and perhaps beyond that. We propose to carry out a research program in magnetic microstructures as applied to information storage. The research will study several fundamental issues that should be addressed to bring the technology closer to thermal and quantum limits: Experimental investigations and modeling of the relation of physical and magnetic microstructure to fluctuations and noise is expected to lead the way to storage media with controlled and programmed microstructures. We plan to introduce novel computing methods using massively parallel processors into the micromagnetic modeling. Studies of medium and transducer micromagnetics will be aimed toward multielement sensors. Such sensors will be needed for servo systems capable of high density recording track following. We will also explore their possible application to adaptive sensing as an innovative method of eliminating microstructure related medium noise. This will involve research on signal processing algorithms appropriate to these sensors. A breakthrough in even one of these directions will have a far ranging technological and economic impact. Apart from the direct technological benefits expected from this research, it will have a lasting impact through its mission of teaching gifted professionals principles of information storage technology and magnetics, engineering disciplines that are underrepresented in United States universities to the serious detriment of our international competitiveness.
