BONN, Germany, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- German scientists have determined the existence of right- and left-handed magnetic vortices that might lead to advances in hard disk technology.

University of Bonn scientists, in collaboration with colleagues from Berlin and Geneva, say they believe the physical phenomenon could eventually lead to the construction of faster and more reliable hard disks.

The magnetic vortex can be pictured like a traffic circle, the researchers said. But instead of cars circulating, it consists of an arrangement of magnetized atoms. They form a pattern similar to a ring of tiny bar magnets, so nothing actually moves around the atomic traffic circle -- but the direction can change. When the "north poles" are all pointing clockwise the magnetic vortex is "right-handed", otherwise the vortex is "left-handed".

"The existence of a circular atomic traffic system of this sort has been presumed for several years," said Bonn physics Professor Manfred Fiebig. "We have actually discovered this kind of vortex field in a substance called lithium cobalt phosphate and employed laser-optics to determine its direction."

The researchers, including Dutch scientist Bas Van Aken and Geneva-based physicists Hans Schmid and Jean-Pierre Rivera, call the phenomenon "ferrotoroidicity".

The research is reported in the journal Nature.