Researchers of the University of Southampton have found a way to store 360 TB of data on a piece of glass. The data is stored on a nanostructure in a piece of quartz written by a femto laser. The 5 dimensional (5D) storage can survive a period of 13.8 billion year at 190 degrees Celsius and virtually unlimited on room temperature. For a short period the data can survive temperatures up to 1,000 degrees Celsius.
The technology was first demonstrated in 2013 when a text document of 300kb was successfully stored. In the meantime several important documents about the history of humanity such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Newton's optics, the Magna Carta and the Bible are saved on quartz using the technology.
The data is written with a laser that fires extreme short and intense pulses of light. Data is written in three layers of nanostructured dots separated by five micrometres. The nanostructures change the way light travels through glass, modifying polarisation of light that can then be read by combination of optical microscope and a polariser, similar to that found in Polaroid sunglasses.
Besides the 3 dimensional nano structure of the glass, the size and orientation of the structure form the 4th and 5th dimension of the 5D storage.
"It is thrilling to think that we have created the technology to preserve documents and information and store it in space for future generations. This technology can secure the last evidence of our civilisation: all we’ve learnt will not be forgotten", according to Professor Peter Kazansky, from the ORC.
The researchers are now trying to find companies interesting in further developing the technology and to eventually bring it to market.
