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'Superman memory crystal' holds tons of data for eons

Scientists at the University of Southampton in England have made a major step forward in the development of digital data storage that is capable of surviving for billions of years.

Using nanostructured glass, scientists from the University's Optoelectronics Research Center (ORC) have developed the recording and retrieval processes of five-dimensional (5D) digital data by femtosecond laser writing.

U.K. researchers think eternal 5D data storage could record the history of humankind.

 

 

The storage allows unprecedented properties, including 360-TB/disc data capacity, thermal stability up to 1,000 C, and a virtually unlimited lifetime (13.8 billion years at 190 C ), opening a new era of eternal data archiving.

As a very stable and safe form of portable memory, the technology could be highly useful for organizations with big archives, such as national archives, museums, and libraries, to preserve their information and records.

The technology was first experimentally demonstrated in 2013 when a 300-kb digital copy of a text file was successfully recorded in 5D.

Now, major documents from human history such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Newton's Opticks, Magna Carta, and King James Bible have been saved as digital copies that could survive the human race. A copy of the UDHR encoded to 5D data storage was recently presented to UNESCO by the ORC at the International Year of Light (IYL) closing ceremony in Mexico.

The documents were recorded using an ultrafast laser, producing extremely short and intense pulses of light. The file is written in three layers of nanostructured dots separated by 5 micrometers (one-millionth of a meter).

The self-assembled nanostructures change the way light travels through glass, modifying the polarization of light, which can then be read using a combination of optical microscope and a polarizer, similar to that found in Polaroid sunglasses.

Dubbed 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. The information encoding is realized in five dimensions: the size and orientation in addition to the three-dimensional position of these nanostructures.

VIDEO: 5D optical storage overview.

"It is thrilling to think that we have created the technology to preserve documents and information and store it in space for future generations," says Professor Peter Kazansky, ORC. "This technology can secure the last evidence of our civilization: All we've learnt will not be forgotten."

The researchers presented their work at the photonics industry's renowned SPIE, The International Society for Optical Engineering Conference in San Francisco, mid-February. The invited paper, "5D Data Storage by Ultrafast Laser Writing in Glass," was presented Feb. 17.

The team is now looking for industry partners to further develop and commercialize this ground-breaking new technology ... but there's no word yet about whether crystal reader devices will be available millions of years from now to decode the information laser-etched inside the glass.

Source: University of Southampton, U.K.

Published May 2016

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