According to Professor Jagdish Narayan, director of the National Science Foundation Centre for Advanced Materials and Smart Structures at North Carolina State University, the ferromagnetic film, on which the nanodots were based, could result in the making of ultra-dense memory chips. And, these ultra-dense memory chips can store bits in the magnetic spin – either up or down – of each nanodot.

The crucial factor, Prof. Jagdish Narayan says, is that these self-assembling nanodots aligned exactly with underlying lattice at a density of 1 terabit per square centimetre. Besides, the researchers were able to control epitaxially the orientation each nanodot.

The nanodots, according to the researchers, themselves are composed of clusters of a magnetic nickel alloy, which precipitates into nanodots that are about 10 nanometres in diameter. These nanodots – which comprise around 10,000 atoms – are good for making magnetic memory chips as they automatically line up in the rows and columns required by memory chips.

The scientists at North Carolina State University say that the magnetic material can be grown in monolayers, either atop a conductor (titanium nitride) or in an insulator (magnesium oxide). Both titanium nitride and magnesium oxide have the same lattice spacing and they are also non-magnetic.

The magnetic material, the researchers claim, also can be used to cast ceramic automobile engines that could get 80 miles/gallon fuel efficiency on account of running at temperatures much higher than the current internal-combustion engines.

In addition, the high thermal conductivity of the ceramic material – based on embedded metal nanodots – may have applications in solar-energy generators, the researchers say.