<>A group of researchers from the UK recorded data in a nanostructured glass crystal. This storage device seems detached from the sci-fi series, it has practically an unlimited life time and a capacity that exceeds that of Blu-Ray by 2800 times, being able to save the data and information about our entire civilization, for those who will come after us…
Scientists at the University of Southampton have developed a “penta-dimensional” optical memory, experimentally proving the possibility of recording data in nanostructured glass using a very high speed (femtosecond), with laser, which creates self-assembled nanostructures from molten quartz.
The creators of 5D memory called their invention “Superman memory crystal” as a result of crystal memories used in a number of Superman films.
The method of producing these crystals is called 5D, because in addition to the three positions of these nanostructures, they also contain two characteristics: refraction and polarization as additional parameters.
This new storage method allows an unprecedented 360 TB of data capacity for a DVD disc. The maximum memory capacity of the last generations of Blu-Ray DVD is 128 GB. And the largest magnetic hard drive with HAMR technology that is not yet commercially produced, will have about 20 TB per disk.
Storage on glass could keep the data intact for millions of years, whilea DVD is only guaranteed for about 7 years, in which the data is kept error-free.
Nanostructured glass remains stable even if exposed to temperatures up to 1000 °C.
,, We are in the process of developing a very stable and secure form of portable memory using glass, which could be extremely useful for corporations and organizations with large archives. At the time of the act, companies have to redo their archives every 10 to 15 years, because hard drive memories have a relatively short lifespan” , said project chief Jingyu Zhang, stressing that museums and national archives, with their huge numbers of documents, will be the first to benefit from these super memoirs.
The University of Southampton – Optoelectronic Research Centre and the Eindhoven University of Technology have already presented a joint project called: ,, 5D method of data storage with ultra-fast laser on nanostructured glass” at this year’s Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics held in San Jose, California, United States.
Professor Peter G. Kazansky, disciple of the Nobel Laureate for the Invention of the Laser, Aleksandr Prokhorov, said that: “It is thrilling to think that we have created the first document that will probably survive the human race. This technology can preserve even the last proof of the current civilization:. Everything I have learned will not be forgotten”
source: http://www.southampton.ac.uk