Scientists develop a 125 TB optical disc, may revive the obsolete storage technology

In a significant development in the tech world, scientists from China have devised a new technology that will allow optical discs to store data in the petabit range, close to 125 GB. The innovation may rekindle our interest in optical disks, a storage medium now primarily limited to gaming.

Optical disks were a popular storage option until two decades ago. Since then, the costs of USB drives and external hard disks have come down, making these two the preferred forms of storage. Besides, optical disks were rather fragile and prone to scratches, another factor that went against it.

Science behind the 125 TB optical disk

Scientists from China published an article in Nature titled, A 3D nanoscale optical disk memory with petabit capacity, which explained the scientific principles behind the high-capacity storage medium.

It uses dye-doped photoresist with aggregation-induced emission luminogens or AIE-DDPR, a newly developed material with a high areal density (storage capacity per unit area), and is roughly 24 times faster than advanced high-speed hard drives.

As per scientists, the process of manufacturing AIE-DDPR is similar to that of conventional CDs or DVDs. The AIE-DDPR optical discs feature a double-sided design with 100 layers on both sides. Since each layer is unbelievably thin, the distance between any two is just 1 micrometer.

To quote the scientists,

We develop an optical recording medium based on a photoresist film doped with aggregation-induced emission dye, which can be optically stimulated by femtosecond laser beams. This film is highly transparent and uniform, and the aggregation-induced emission phenomenon provides the storage mechanism. It can also be inhibited by another deactivating beam, resulting in a recording spot with a super-resolution scale.

Scope of the optical disk in personal and industrial use

Researchers working on the technology claim that it would help develop exabit-level data centers in closed spaces and reduce the area and cost requirements. Besides, with AIE-DDPR, optical discs have an increased life span of 50-100 years, thus negating the need for data migration and cloud storage.

To boost commercial viability, scientists are working on improving the read and write speed by using more precise laser beams. It will take some time before we have a refined version of the 125 TB optical disc, which finds application at home and in the industrial setup.

Many modern-day laptops don’t feature a built-in drive, but you can always get an external optical disc drive to access data on a CD/DVD.

What would you choose between a 125 TB optical disc and an external hard disk? Share with our readers in the comments section.