We could soon store 700 Terabytes on a 12-centimeter optical disk which would be equal to storing 28,000 Blu-ray disks. A separate advance with in data encoding could triple storage to 2.1 Petabytes in a single optical disk.
Researchers at USST, RMIT and NUS have overcome the optical diffraction limit by using earth-rich lanthanide-doped upconversion nanoparticles and graphene oxide flakes. This unique material platform enables low-power optical writing nanoscale information bits.
The higher density system will use inexpensive continuous-wave lasers. This will have lower operating costs compared to traditional optical writing techniques using expensive and bulky pulsed lasers.
Next generation of high-capacity optical data storage technology will also enable the development of energy-efficient nanofabrication of flexible graphene based electronics.
Considering a lateral separation and axial separation of 2.5 times and 8 times the achieved lateral feature size, they estimate that this scheme enables a projected maximal DVD-sized single-disc data storage capacity approaching 700 TB. Furthermore, upconversion RET requires ten thousand-fold lower beam intensity for writing of optical data bits compared with the nanostructuring of fused quartz glass. In principle, enhancing high-energy upconversion in UCNPs and tuning the content of oxygen functional groups in GO enable up to ten thousand fold improved writing efficiency for exposure times of milliseconds and energy consumption of microjoules per bit. Multifocal array techniques enable throughputs of up to ~2.3 Gbps by detecting 450-nm upconversion luminescence.
Science Advances – Nanoscale optical writing through upconversion resonance energy transfer
Abstract Nanoscale optical writing using far-field super-resolution methods provides an unprecedented approach for high-capacity data storage. However, current nanoscale optical writing methods typically rely on photoinitiation and photoinhibition with high beam intensity, high energy consumption, and short device life span. We demonstrate a simple and broadly applicable method based on resonance energy transfer from lanthanide-doped upconversion nanoparticles to graphene oxide for nanoscale optical writing. The transfer of high-energy quanta from upconversion nanoparticles induces a localized chemical reduction in graphene oxide flakes for optical writing, with a lateral feature size of ~50 nm (1/20th of the wavelength) under an inhibition intensity of 11.25 MW cm−2. Upconversion resonance energy transfer may enable next-generation optical data storage with high capacity and low energy consumption, while offering a powerful tool for energy-efficient nanofabrication of flexible electronic devices.
SOURCES- Science Advances, University of Shanghai For Science and Technology Written by Brian Wang, Nextbigfuture.com
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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