Scientists present 5D storage that can store data for billions of years
Scientists continue to finetune technology to store massive data crucial to humankind. Lately, University of Southampton scientists have devised high-density five dimensional data storage with ultrafast laser writing to store information for billions of years.
The revolutionary breakthrough’s significance was seen when University’s Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) presented the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 5D data storage to UNESCO. That was done during the recent International Year of Light (IYL) closing ceremony held in Mexico.
The concept of hefty bulk data, including major historical documents preserved using optical memory based on femtosecond laser writing, was first broached by scientists in 1996. Recently, research scientists experimentally demonstrated the recording and read-out processes of 5D optical data by femtosecond laser writing, ORC noted in a recently published paper.
Making great strides in high-tech digital storage
It showed that great stride has been made towards the commercialisation of ultrafast laser-based optical data storage. Recording documents utilising ultrafast laser produced extremely short and intense pulses of light.
Files are then written in three layers of nanostructured dots separated by five micrometres (one millionth of a metre). University of Southampton researchers, who likened the technology to the memory crystals used in “Superman” flicks, presented their research findings at the recent the International Society for Optical Engineering Conference in San Francisco, USA.
For the past year, the research team has been looking for industry partners to be able to further develop and commercialise the groundbreaking new technology. “It is thrilling to think that we have created the technology to preserve documents and information and store it in space for future generations,” said Peter G Kazansky, professsor at the ORC with over two decades of experience in quantum electronics, fibre and integrated optics. Through the digital data storage device, crucial information can be stored for billions of years, the University of Southampton stated in a past news release.
Similar storage tech in wearable form
Recording huge data through self-assembled nanostructures has been done by other scientific minds. An example is the Rosetta Wearable Disk, a necklace containing the preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 327 languages and vocabulary lists for over 715 languages.
The disk innovation was made possibly by nanotechnology. The disk may be only be accessed by people who have donated the amount of $1,000 to the Long Now foundation, a non-profit organisation based in San Francisco, USA that was created in 1996.
