Researchers from the University of Southampton, England, have successfully recorded, read, and erased data from a piece of nano-structured glass. This technique could revolutionize microscopy in general, and medical imaging in specific — and, perhaps more importantly for computing, it could also be used to store binary data, like an optical disc.

The writing/recording process is called femtoprinting. Using a femtosecond laser — a laser which can deliver pulses that are just a few quadrillionths of a second long — nano-structures inside a monolithic (single-crystal) piece of silica glass can be turned into polarization converters. These polarizing structures are permanent until re-written with another laser. To read the data, light is simply shone through the piece of glass. The tiny polarizers twist the rays of light, and the type (azimuthal or radial) and direction of polarization can then be measured and converted into digital data — similar, in fact, to how you read data from a fiber optic network.

The end result, and it’s hard to say this with a straight face, is permanent five-dimensional data storage. Not only can the standard three dimensions be used — vertical and horizontal position on the piece of glass, and varying depth depending on the duration of the femtosecond laser pulse — but the wavelength and polarization of the light can also carry data. These nano-structures are absolutely tiny, too — just a few nanometers, much smaller than a DVD or Blu-ray disc — so we could be talking about an incredibly high-density storage medium.

The current goal of femtoprinting isn’t to revolutionize solid-state memory, though: it’s to provide a better storage medium for every kind of medical and optical imaging. Because femtoprinting stores its data in five dimensions, these glass plates are perfect for storing multi-dimensional images, like the results of an MRI, CT, or PET scan. Currently these systems are attached to incredibly expensive image-capturing devices that create vast amounts of data in formats like JPEG2000. Femtoprinting could offer a cheap replacement that combines capturing and long-term storage, and ultimately in a form factor no larger than a shoe box.

Read more at University of Southampton and ScienceDaily, or about Femtoprinting