Pixie dust is the trail of sparkling material that often follows mythical creatures such as pixies and fairies in general when they are visually represented. Sometimes, this trail is interpreted as being a tangible substance, often imbued with magic powers. The most notable example of this is in the story of Peter Pan, where pixie dust allows one to fly if one is thinking happy thoughts.
"Pixie dust" is also the informal name that IBM used briefly in a series of 2001 press releases for its antiferromagnetically-coupled (AFC) media technology, which can increase the data capacity of hard drives.