4D Ultra‐High‐Density Long Data Storage Supported by a Solid‐State Optically Active Polymeric Material with High Thermal Stability

• Published in: Advanced optical materials Vol. 9; no. 17
• Main Authors: Gao, Le, Zhang, Qiming, Evans, Richard A., Gu, Min
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Weinheim Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.09.2021
• Subjects: Accelerated aging tests; Aging (materials); Data centers; Data storage; Density; Direct laser writing; Materials science; Nanofabrication; Optical activity; optical data storage; Optics; polymeric materials; Room temperature; Storage capacity; Thermal stability; Video discs
• ISSN: 2195-1071; 2195-1071
• DOI: 10.1002/adom.202100487

The big data era has presented major challenges for data centers worldwide in information preservation aspects, such as storage capacity and long‐term sustainability. Here, a newly synthesized optically active polymeric material based on a highly thermally stable penta‐functional monomer dipentaerythritol pentaacrylate is reported. This material supports ultra‐high storage density with century‐long data lifetime utilizing the galvo‐dithered direct laser writing nanofabrication technique. Eighty layers of bit arrays and 16 grayscale‐level coding examples are demonstrated to confirm the feasibility of the 4D data storage with a data density reaching 10 terabytes per digital video disc. With the much‐improved thermal stability (the data degradation point reaches beyond 600 K) than average plastic materials, such as polymethylmethacrylate, this new polymeric material allows a data lifetime of nearly 250 years at room temperature (300 K), as confirmed by the accelerated aging test. This material offers a suitable storage medium solution for next generation optical data storage centers. This paper reports the development of a newly synthesized optically active polymeric material with high thermal stability that supports four‐dimensional ultra‐high storage density (10 terabytes per standard digital video disc) with centuries‐long data lifetime at room temperature. This work provides a practical solution for next‐generation data centers for long‐term data storage with large‐scale industrialization potential.