A system of writing to and reading from a magnetic nanostructure is disclosed which includes an opto-magnetic write arrangement including a polarizer configured to receive incident light and provide a circularly or linearly polarized light, wherein light polarization is controlled by the polarizer and its orientation with respect to polarization of the incident light, a nanomagnetic structure configured to receive the polarized light including a substrate, and a nanomagnetic stack including a nanomagnet, and a capping layer, wherein the nanomagnetic stack is configured to receive the polarized light and thereby switch orientation of a magnetic moment associated with the magnetic nanostructure whereby the magnetic moment direction specifies a bit value held in the magnetic structure, and a magnetic read arrangement, configured to receive and interpret an optical signal from the magnetic nanostructure indicating the magnetic moment orientation from the nanomagnetic stack.