Researchers at the University of Southampton have developed a glass-based 5-D data storage method with incredibly high capacity and a near-unlimited lifetime. Using femtosecond laser writing, the Southampton researchers create three layers of nanostructured dots, each 5um apart, in quartz. The size, orientation,a and 3-D position of each nanodot - together accounting for 5-D - store the data. To retrieve the data, a polarizer and optical microscope read the nanostructures by measuring disruptions to light polarized through the glass. You can see the ultrafast laser in action in a video at youtu.be/OP15blgK5oU. According to a press release, "The storage allows unprecedented properties, including a 360 TB/disk data capacity, thermal stability up to 1000 deg C, and virtually unlimited lifetime at room temperature (13.8 BN/y at 190 deg C), opening a new era of eternal data archiving." To demonstrate the value, the Southampton researchers wrote digital copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Isaac Newton's Opticks, Magna Carta, and King James Bible into bite-sized pieces of glass.
