Innovation on Superman Memory
Crystal for 13.8 billion years'
Researchers of University of
Southampton, UK, archived some documents, along with Isaac Newton's scientific treatise "Optics," on coin-size
pieces of glass using a method of laser etching. These tiny discs can survive
for billions of years at temperatures of 374 degrees Fahrenheit (190 degrees
Celsius). The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the King James Bible have
now been digitally stored on a piece of glass known as a "Superman memory
crystal" that has the capacity to save huge amounts of information for up
to 13.8 billion years.
Scientists
have been pursuing the idea of glass as a medium for mass data storage since
1996, when it was first suggested that data could be written optically into
transparent materials. By using a femto-second laser to alter the physical
structure of fused quartz, a “dot” with a different refractive index can be
created to denote the binary digit one; zeros are indicated by the absence of a
dot. Japanese electronics giant Hitachi succeeded in storing data using this
method back in 2009, but Zhang’s team has taken the technology a step further,
by recording information in 5D – the three dimensions of space that describe
the physical location of the dot, and two additional dimensions that are
encoded by the polarity and intensity of the beam that creates the dot.
Kazansky, a professor at the
University of Optoelectronics Research Centre and his colleagues first reported
their "5D data storage" in 2013 at the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics in San Jose, California. The
researchers use femto-second lasers, which produce very short pulses and to
inscribe information in nano structured dots i.e. 5 micrometers apart. These
nano-size etchings polarize light that travels through the glass. A combination
of a polarizing lens and an optical microscope is all that is needed to
"decode" the message, the researchers said.
"It is thrilling to think that
we have created the technology to preserve documents and information and store
it in space for future generations," Peter Kazansky, said in a statement. In 2013, the researchers recorded a 300-kilobyte text
file, but the capacity of a single glass data disc is 360 terabytes
(1,000,000,000 kilobytes), they reported. The discs are stable up to 1,832
degrees F (1,000 degrees C). Southampton researchers gave the copy of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a gift to the United Nations
Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in early February,
part of the closing ceremony of that organization's Year of Light initiative.
The scientists call the glass the "Superman memory crystal," a nod to
memory crystals in the "Superman" films and comics. According to the
university, the researchers are now seeking industry partners to further
develop the technology. Scientists have
developed a totally new type of data storage, in the form of
glass discs close to the size of a quarter. Data is encoded into tiny
nanostructures embedded within the glass, and the team believes their invention
could be used to store data for up to 13.8 billion years.
By
Mr.
SANDEEP KUMAR
Asst.
Prof
Department
of Electronics and Communication Engineering
Comments
Post a Comment