Diamonds really are the best friends…of our data. At least according to a group of researchers from theHefei University of Science and Technology, in China. These geniuses have succeeded in one feat: archiving 1.85 terabyte of information in a cubic centimeter of man-made diamond. It's a bit like cramming the entire Wikipedia into a grain of sand. A world record of memory density, which opens up futuristic scenarios for long-term storage. Because the beauty of diamonds, besides their shine, is that they are practically eternal. By engraving data with ultra-fast laser pulses, these optical discs could last for millions of years without the slightest degradation. Stuff that our old CDs and hard drives can only dream of.
Optical discs, the (new) challenge of mass storage
Do you know how much space your data takes up? Photos, videos, documents, music…all crammed onto hard drives, USB sticks, and cloud services. Now imagine multiplying that amount by billions. That’s the level of data that industries like artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and supercomputers must handle every day. Petabytes upon petabytes of information that must be kept safe, secure, and accessible for as long as possible. A tough nut to crack.
Traditional optical discs such as CDs, SSDs and Blu-rays are still fine for everyday use, but they are sieves when faced with these mammoth demands. Just think that the diamond optical discs can contain the same data as approximately 2.000 Blu-rays of the same size. It's not all fun and games. But the real magic lies in the longevity of these hi-tech discs. As explained Ya Wang, one of the authors of the study published in “Nature photonics"(I link it here), once the data is etched into the diamond's crystalline structure, it can survive for eons at room temperature, without the need for maintenance. Virtually eternal.
Lasers, Diamonds and Bits
But how do these diamond optical discs store so much data? The trick is all in the density of the laser writing. The researchers took thin chips of synthetic diamond and bombarded them with ultrafast laser pulses. These flashes of light displace some carbon atoms in the crystal structure, creating tiny voids. By varying the density of these tiny holes on the nanometer scale, they can create regions of different brightness.
It's a bit like writing microscopic pixels that, when viewed together, form readable images or data. An ingenious and minute system that takes full advantage of the optical properties of diamonds. The result? A monstrous storage density.
Diamond Optical Discs, Data Forever
Ok, the density is impressive. But what is even more surprising about these optical discs is their vitality. Think about it: how long did your old CDs and DVDs last? And hard disks? At best, a few decades, then they started to lose their power. Erasures, physical degradation and so on, the our data have always been constantly at risk of disappearing into thin air. A nightmare for anyone who had (some still have) valuable information to preserve long-term and archived on optical disks.
This is where diamonds come in. By etching data into their ultra-strong crystalline structure, these optical discs can last for millions of years without blinking. No oxidation, no deterioration, no data loss. An eternal memory card that defies time itself.
The future is bright
Sure, for now these diamond optical discs are still very expensive and require science fiction laser equipment. But researchers are confident that in the future they will be miniaturized and made more accessible. Maybe one day we will all have little diamonds filled with memories, knowledge and data. An everlasting personal archive to pass on to posterity. Or maybe these discs will become the standard for preserving human knowledge in the libraries of the future. Who knows.
Anyway, the age of high-tech diamonds has just begun. And it promises sparkling wonders that will last forever. Kind of like love in romantic movies. Only instead of “I will love you forever,” here it says “I will archive you forever.” Definitely less poetic, but much more useful. Right?
