[24-07-14] Scientists create 1.6-petabit optical storage disc that could change storage industry

The Resurgence of the Compact Disc A Technological Renaissance

In the digital age, where streaming and cloud storage dominate, the compact disc (CD) seems like a relic of the past. However, recent advancements in optical storage technology could revolutionize data storage, bringing the CD back into the spotlight. Let's explore the history of CDs, the new breakthrough, and its potential impact.

 

A Trip Down Memory Lane

The journey of the compact disc began in the late 1970s when Philips was exploring video disc technology. Inspired by emerging laser technology, Philips aimed to create a portable, high-quality audio disc. The project faced challenges, especially in digital audio recording, leading Philips to collaborate with Sony, a master in digital audio circuitry. This partnership culminated in the creation of the CD, with Philips focusing on the laser reading technology and Sony on the analog-to-digital conversion.

 

The first production CD player was introduced by Philips in April 1982, followed by Sony's CDP-101 in October 1982 in Japan. Despite initial skepticism, the superior audio quality of CDs won over consumers, with Dire Straits' album "Brothers in Arms" becoming the first CD to sell over a million copies in 1985. By 2000, global CD sales peaked at 2.45 billion, but the rise of digital music and streaming services led to a significant decline, with sales dropping by 95% by 2021.

 

The Breakthrough: 3D Optical Discs

Despite the decline of CDs, researchers at the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology have developed a 3D optical disc with an astonishing storage capacity of 1.6 petabytes (PB), equivalent to 200,000 DVDs. This new technology, published in the journal Nature, has the potential to transform data storage.

 

How It Works

The key to this massive storage lies in the disc's structure. Traditional optical discs have one or two layers, but the new 3D optical disc boasts up to 100 layers. Researchers have crammed in more data than ever before next ultra transparent materials and nanoscale spots. To achieve this feat they used Advanced Materials that allows light to pass through with minimal scattering. Thanks to advanced materials like aggregation-induced emission dye-doped photoresist (AIED-DPR).

 

Data writing and reading involve a complex laser system. A green laser initiates spot formation, while a red laser stops the process, allowing precise data encoding. To read the data, a blue laser makes the spots glow, and an orange laser turns off the glow, revealing the stored information. 

  

Applications 

The new 3D optical discs are ideal for data centers, offering significant advantages in storage density and longevity. They could store exabytes of data in much smaller physical spaces than current technologies and are resistant to electromagnetic interference, making them suitable for long-term archival storage.

 

Challenges

However, there are the challenges to widespread adoption. 

Current prototypes suffer from slow writing speeds, high energy consumption, and costly manufacturing processes. The estimated energy consumption is in the kilowatt range per terabyte, with writing speeds only in megabytes per second. Additionally, the lasers used are expensive, with costs around $50,000.

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Reference

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKY1EzNqLDY&t=27s&ab_channel=ColdFusion
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06980-y
https://phys.org/news/2024-02-3d-nanoscale-optical-disk-memory.html