Data storage on diamond for millions of years

According to Sofianews’ science and technology service, citing Digiato, Chinese researchers have set a new record for storage density on diamond, achieving a capacity of 1.85 terabytes per cubic centimeter. What makes this achievement particularly remarkable is that this system, based on the atomic structure of diamond, can preserve data for millions of years.

Data storage on diamond for millions of years. Previous techniques also used laser pulses to encode data onto diamonds, but the new method, with higher storage density, could store nearly 100 terabytes of data on a diamond optical disk with a volume similar to a standard Blu-ray disc; equivalent to about 2,000 Blu-ray discs. A regular Blu-ray typically lasts only a few decades, whereas a diamond disk can last for millions of years. In their research, the Chinese scientists used small diamond pieces a few millimeters in size, although they suggest that future versions of this system could take the form of larger storage disks. The researchers employed ultrafast laser pulses to remove some carbon atoms from the diamond, leaving empty spaces the size of single atoms. The researchers discovered that by controlling the energy level of the laser writing the data, they could control the brightness of specific locations in the diamond by removing a specified number of atoms; thus, data could be stored with varying brightness levels in the empty spaces. A specialized laser then reads the information by examining the brightness levels of points within the diamond, allowing for data decoding. For their experiment, the researchers stored the famous photographs of "Edward Muybridge" at specific locations inside the diamond. The system stored these data with over 99 percent accuracy. However, this new method is still not commercially viable, as it requires expensive lasers, high-speed fluorescence imaging cameras, and other advanced equipment. Nevertheless, the researchers expect that their diamond-based system will eventually be able to be offered in a small size, fitting into a space the size of a microwave oven. The findings of this research have been published in Nature Photonics.