"Superman Memory Crystal" That Could Store Data For 13.8 Billion Years

In today's modern world storage devices plays an important role in our daily lives. One of the most common, and essential purposes of storage devices is to backup or store your important data. In the business world, data needs to be stored permanently and in a way that is not easily destroyed, corrupted, or damaged.

And now, researchers at the University of Southampton's Optical Research Center claimed that they have developed a technique that can record data in five-dimensional (5D) and keep it safe for billions of years.

The five-dimensional disks made by the University of Southampton are not time-traveling devices that can view parallel universes, but rather digital data disk dubbed 'Superman Memory Crystal,' which has 360 terabyte storage capacity and can store data for up to 13.8 billion years, more than twice the estimated age of the Earth, and approximately equal to the estimated age of our universe.

The concept of being five-dimensional means that one disk has several different images depending on the angle from which it is viewed and the magnification of the microscope used to view it. Basically, each disk has multiple layers of micro and macro-level images.

The first three dimensions in the 5D quartz disk are X, Y, and Z to denote the nano-grating's location in space within the disk. The 4th and 5th dimensions are two additional forms of information on the birefringence patterns of nano-gratings. The 4th dimension is the orientation of the slow axis, while the strength of retardance is the 5th dimension. The 4th and 5th dimensions relate to how the light moves into the quartz, hits the nano-grating, and how the light reacts after hitting the nano-grating.

According to researchers, these disks are made of nanostructured glass and the data is stored and retrieved using ultrafast femtosecond laser writing, and can potentially last so long, because glass is a tough material that needs a lot of heat to melt or warp and is also chemically stable. This makes the 5D disks safe to a temperature of 1,000°C.

The technology was first experimentally demonstrated in 2013 when a 300-kilobyte digital copy of a text file was successfully recorded in 5D.

The Southampton team that is developing the disc was able to record the major human history documents, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Newton's Opticks, Magna Carta, and Kings James Bible, which have been saved as digital copies in 5D disk.

Image:- The picture shown above is not an actual image of the 5D disk.