Amorphous metallic films for bubble domain applications

IBM Journal of Research and Development, Volume 17, Issue 1, pp. 66-68 (1973).

This paper is an example of ways in which basic research on new materials has led to advances in technology for a variety of applications. Sputter-deposited amorphous metallic films consisting of rare-earth elements and transition metals were shown to have a variety of magnetic properties and potential uses. In this paper the films were made to exhibit magnetic “bubbles,” which were considered for potential new data storage devices. Bubble memory was a very active area of research and development in IBM in the early 1970s [see for example papers in IBM Journal of Research and Development 20, No. 2 (1976)]. Bubble memory was not implemented in commercial devices, but the class of sputtered amorphous magnetic materials became the basis for erasable, read–write optical storage technology and the foundation of a worldwide magneto-optic disk industry. In 1995, P. Chaudhari, J. Cuomo, and R. Gambino were awarded the National Medal of Technology for this work.

See the National Medal of Technology awarded to the IBM Team of Praveen Chaudhari, Jerome Cuomo, and Richard Gambino in 1995.