Save your memories for Eternity
New technology enables storing data in glass for billions of years
 

Serendipity Photonics Group

Research activities in the group are focused on adventurous and potentially high impact research in optics, quantum and physical electronics. Currently researchers are working to create a way to store data in a superdense form for centuries, using nanostructured glass. Researchers at the University of Southampton are moulding silica glass into a very stable and safe form of portable memory, which could be utilised by organisations with large archives. Coined as the super memory crystal, the data is recorded via self-assembled nanostructures created in fused quartz. The storage method potentially allows for up to 360 terabytes of data capacity per disk (enough to hold 72 million photos) and a practically unlimited lifetime, in addition to thermal stability up to 1000°C.

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