Jülich, 31 March 2020. In the production of nanoelectronic components, material defects are usually unwelcome as they can impair desired behaviour. However, new computer simulations by a team of physicists at Forschungszentrum Jülich show that such defects can also be useful. According to their studies, material defects – introduced using a targeted approach – could improve the performance of a certain class of data storage devices.