A new technology developed in China could enable optical discs that can store up to 200TB of data. If put into practical use, optical media could be revived as a cost-effective alternative to hard disks and tapes for long-term storage. Register: Researchers at Shanghai University of Science and Technology (USST) and Shanghai Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics (SIOM) say they have demonstrated that optical storage is possible down to petabit levels using hundreds of layers. , at the same time, it is also argued that the optical diffraction barrier is broken, limiting how close the recorded features can be.
In an article published in Nature titled “3D nanoscale optical disk memory with petabit capacity,” the researchers describe a novel photoresist called dye-doped photoresist (DDPR) with aggregation-induced luminescence emitter (AIE-DDPR). It details how the storage medium was developed. . When applied as a recording layer, it is claimed to outperform other optical systems and hard drives in terms of areal density, or amount of storage per unit area. Specifically, the researchers claim it is 125 times faster than multilayer optical disks based on gold nanorods and 24 times faster than state-of-the-art hard drives (based on 2022 data). The recording and retrieval processes proposed for this medium each require two laser beams. For optical writing, a 515 nm femtosecond Gaussian laser beam and a donut-shaped 639 nm continuous wave laser beam are focused on the recording area.
