Southampton, England--University of Southampton scientists, using nanostructured glass, have for the first time experimentally demonstrated the recording and retrieval processes of five dimensional (5D) digital data by femtosecond laser writing. The optical storage allows unprecedented parameters including 360 TB/disc data capacity, thermal stability up to 1800 degrees Fahrenheit, and practically unlimited lifetime.
Coined as the 'Superman' memory crystal, as the glass memory has been compared to the "memory crystals" used in the Superman films, the data is recorded via self-assembled nanostructures created in fused quartz, which is able to store vast quantities of data for over a million years. The information encoding is realized in five dimensions: the size and orientation in addition to the three dimensional position of these nanostructures.
A 300 kb digital copy of a text file was successfully recorded in 5D using an ultrafast laser; the file was written in three layers of nanostructured dots separated by five micrometers. The self-assembled nanostructures change the way light travels through glass, modifying polarization of light that can then be read by combination of optical microscope and a polarizer, similar to that found in Polaroid sunglasses.
The research is led by Jingyu Zhang from the University's Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) and conducted under a joint project with Eindhoven University of Technology. "We are developing a very stable and safe form of portable memory using glass, which could be highly useful for organisations with big archives. At the moment companies have to back up their archives every five to ten years because hard-drive memory has a relatively short lifespan," says Zhang.
The Physical Optics group from the ORC presented their paper at the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO 2013) in San Jose, CA. The work was done in the framework of the EU project Femtoprint.
Professor Peter Kazansky, the ORC’s group supervisor, adds, "It is thrilling to think that we have created the first document which will likely survive the human race. This technology can secure the last evidence of civilisation: all we've learnt will not be forgotten."
The team is now looking for industry partners to commercialize this new technology.
SOURCE: University of Southampton; http://www.southampton.ac.uk/mediacentre/news/2013/jul/13_131.shtml
