Researchers are designing an optical disc with a capacity of 700 terabytes
Researchers from Shanghai University of Science and Technology USST have introduced a new approach to the next generation of nanoscale optical data storage, which can dramatically increase storage capacity while reducing energy consumption.
Scientists have discovered a new approach to storing high-capacity data, making portable massive data centers possible, as the amount of data we generate every day exceeds imagination in this era of information explosion.
It is estimated that global data could reach 175 zettabytes in 2025, with each zettabyte representing one billion terabytes or trillion gigabytes.
And if 175 zabytes of data were stored by Blu-ray, the amount needed would be 23 times the distance to the moon.
Scientists have linked graphene oxide and transform nanoparticles saturated with lanthanides, which are made by adding lanthanides, rare earth elements, to nanoparticles and are able to convert infrared light into visible ultraviolet light.
By using nanocomposites as storage media combined with an optical writing method for sub-diffraction, it is possible to develop an optical disc with a diameter of 12 cm that can store 700 terabytes, the equivalent capacity of 28,000 Blu-ray discs.
This result provides a novel method for developing new optical discs that require less energy consumption and have a long life.
Professor Zhang Qiming said: It has great potential to be used in huge data centers, and it may be possible in the future to replace a huge data center the size of a football field with a portable disk.
The new optical storage technology is likely to greatly support the development of artificial intelligence technology, which could bring about an information revolution.
The research was conducted by the Shanghai University of Science and Technology, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, the Melbourne Technical College and the National University of Singapore.
Their research is part of an ongoing effort to find efficient ways to store data, while reducing data centers' carbon footprint by ending their reliance on magnetic disks with limited lifespan.
The researchers argue that while storing optical data using lasers provides the best option to meet the growing data demands, the different nature of the light has limited the size of the information bits that can be recorded, which in turn limits the storage capacity of optical discs.
The researchers also noted that this technique uses inexpensive continuous wave lasers, which further helps reduce operating costs compared to traditional optical writing techniques that rely on the expensive and bulky pulse lasers.