Scientists from the University of Southampton have succeeded in creating a new data storage device that works by encoding data in microscopic nanostructures in a glass disc. Furthermore each disc has the astonishing capabilities to hold up to 360 TB worth of data for a virtually unlimited lifetime; it can store your entire music gallery for 13.9 billion years assuming it doesn’t surpass a temperature of a 190°C during the eons. To put that into perspective, the Earth is estimated at being only 4.543 billion years old.
The technology was initially 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 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Newton’s Opticks, Magna Carta and Kings 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.
As to how this 5 dimensional storage works: documents are recorded using an ultrafast laser that produces extremely short but intense pulses of light. The recorded file is then written in three layers of nanostructured dots (called nanogratings) separated by five micrometres. Essentially it’s a miniscule form of 3D printing. While a normal DVD disc is read by how light is reflected of it in two dimensions (1s and 0s), the reflected light for these nanogratings encodes in five dimensions, the size and orientation in addition to the three dimensional position of these nanostructures, hence the name. The self-assembled 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.
“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.”
– Professor Peter Kazansky, from the Optoelectronics Research Centre
