The four squares pictured each measure just 8.8 X 8.8 mm. They also used the laser-writing method to write the university logo and mark on the glass.— Image Credit: Yuhao Lei and Peter G. Kazansky, University of Southampton

DATA STORAGE FUTURE

5D Optical storage breakthrough would enable a disc capacity of 500 TB

Powered by a high-speed laser writing method, a silica glass disc can record & retrieve 10,000x more data than a Blu-ray disc

As we move to an increasingly digitized world, individuals and businesses are producing copious amounts of data on a daily basis. The insatiable appetite for the data brings with it the demand for long-lasting and more efficient forms of data storage with a high capacity. Although Cloud-based systems have provided a cheaper and easier way to handle data, physical storage devices are still as important.

Researchers from the University of Southampton have now taken a huge leap forward by developing a fast and energy-efficient laser-writing method for producing high-density nanostructures in silica glass. The technology which is known as 5D optical storage is one that has been pursued by the team since 2013 — when scientists first demonstrated it successfully using the format to record and retrieve a 300-kb text file.

Obviously, the ambitions were much loftier, as we can see from their recent achievement. The tiny structures used in the silica glass for the innovation can be used for long-term five-dimensional (5D)…