 Albert Fert

Albert Fert coauthored the discovery of giant magnetoresistance in alternating iron and chromium layers. In the 1988 measurements, a magnetic field of 2 tesla nearly halved the electrical resistivity of one thin-chromium sample at 4.2 kelvin. Spin-dependent electron transmission through the chromium layers explained why changing the magnetic arrangement changed the electrical resistance so strongly. The experiment made nanoscale layer structure and electron spin directly relevant to an easily measured electrical signal.^[ref]

A physicist.^[ref]

Albert Fert is a French physicist who is renowned for his work in the field of magnetism and spintronics. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2007, shared with Peter Grünberg, for their discovery of giant magnetoresistance (GMR), a phenomenon that has significant applications in modern data storage technology, including in hard drives. Their research has contributed to the development of more efficient data storage devices and has had a profound impact on the electronics industry.