The Crystal That Remembers: How to Revive Computer Memory
Deep inside every hard drive or flash drive lies a material that can 'remember' an electric field. Such a material is called a ferroelectric. When you apply a voltage, tiny regions inside the crystal (domains, like compass needles) flip. Flip the needle one way, you've written a one; flip it back, a zero. But what happens to the atoms at the moment of that flip?