Scientists at the University of Southampton have developed a 5D glass disc that can store 360 Terabytes of data for billions of years. The discs are made out of nanostructured glass, and the data is stored and retrieved using femtosecond laser writing.

1. 5D STORAGE TECHNOLOGY
Submitted by:
Addivita Agarwal
1402710006

2. “WE CAN ENCODE
ANYTHING. JUST GIVE
US THE FILE.”
- Aabid Patel, a postgraduate
student involved in the research

3. INTRODUCTION
Scientists at the University of Southampton have developed
a 5D glass disc that can store 360 Terabytes of data for
billions of years. The discs are made out of nanostructured
glass, and the data is stored and retrieved using
femtosecond laser writing.

4. • To create the data disc, researchers from the
University of Southampton used a process called
femtosecond laser writing, which creates small
discs of glass using an ultrafast laser that
generates short and intense pulses of light.
These pulses can write data in three layers of
nanostructured dots separated by 5 micrometres
(that's 0.005 mm).

5. How does a normal disc works :
• Data is read from a normal CD by shining a laser at
a tiny line with bumps in it.
• Whenever the laser hits a bump. it's reflected back
and recorded as a 1; whenever there's no bump, it's
recorded as a 0.
These are just two "dimensions" of information — on
or off , CDs can store anything. But because this
bumpy line is stored on the surface of the CD, it's
vulnerable. It can be eroded either by physical
scratches and scuffs, or by exposure to oxygen, heat,
and humidity.

6. So what does 5 dimensional mean?
• 5D discs can store information within their
interior using tiny physical structures known as
"nanogratings." Much like those bumpy lines in
the CDs.

7. To demonstrate their technology, Zhang and colleagues recorded the contents of their
conference paper abstract in the quartz. Each laser-imprinted spot stores three bits of
information. The digital copy of the “written” text is seen on the left of the image. The
read-out of the recorded text file is seen on the right and was done using an optical-
microscope-based quantitative birefringence measurement system. (Courtesy: Zhang et
al./University of Southampton

8. • These gratings change how light is reflected, but instead
of doing so in just two "dimensions," the reflected light
encodes five — hence the name.
• The changes to the light can be read to obtain pieces of
information about the nanograting's orientation, the
strength of the light it refracts, and its location in space
on the x, y, and z axes.
These extra dimensions are why 5D discs can store
data so densely compared to regular optical discs.

9. How a 5D disc different from the
normal disc?
• A Blu-ray disc can hold up to 128GBs of data (the same
as the biggest iPhone), while a 5D disc of the same size
could store nearly 3,000 times that: 360 terabytes of
information.
• These discs can potentially last for so long because glass
is a tough material which needs a lot of heat to melt or
warp it, and it's chemically stable too.

10. Why 5D storage discs
• Photographs fade, books rot, and even hard drives
eventually fester.
• When you take the long view, preserving humanity's
collective culture isn't a marathon, it's a relay — with
successive generations passing on information from one
slowly-failing storage medium to the next.

11. • These discs can potentially last for so long because glass
is a tough material which needs a lot of heat to melt or
warp it, and it's chemically stable too
• 5D data storage obviously has potential as an archival
format for museums and galleries

12. Professor Peter Kazansky is very optimistic about the
technology's potential, he elaborated in an interview with
the University of Southampton's news publication:
"It is thrilling to think that we have created
the technology to preserve documents and
information and store it in space for future
generations. This technology can secure the
last evidence of our civilisation: all we’ve
learnt will not be forgotten."

13. How it works!
The concept of being 5-dimensional means that
one disc has several different images depending on
the angle that one views it from, and the
magnification of the microscope used to view it.
• The 5-dimensional discs have tiny patterns printed on 3
layers within the discs.
• Depending on the angle they are viewed from, these
patterns can look completely different

14. • The data is imprinted onto the discs using ultrafast laser
pulses, creating nanostructures dots arranged into three
layers which are five-millionths of a metre apart.
• These nanostructures change the way light travels
through the glass disc, altering its polarisation. This
modified light can then be read using an optical
microscope and polariser.
• The information encoding inside the disc is realised in
five dimensions - the size and orientation of the
nanostructures, in additional to their three-dimensional
positions inside the disc.

15. Developments
• The technology was first experimentally demonstrated in
2013 when a 300 kb digital copy of a text file was
successfully recorded in 5D.
• Magna Carta and Kings James Bible, have been saved as
digital copies that could survive the human race.

16. • Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was
encoded to 5D data storage and was also presented to
UNESCO by the ORC at the International Year of Light
(IYL) closing ceremony in Mexico.

17. the micron-sized dots which the nanogratings are stored in.
(Image credit: University of Southampton

18. Advantages
 The storage allows 360 TB/disc data capacity
 thermal stability up to 1,000°C
 virtually unlimited lifetime at room temperature (13.8
billion years at 190°C )
 portable memory
 highly useful for organisations with big archives, such
as national archives, museums and libraries, to
preserve their information and records.

19. Disadvantages
 expensive lasers are needed to fabricate the discs
 Due to technology, it’s hard to imagine 5D discs would
support multiple write processes
 It is expensive to deploy and maintain

20. Conclusion
• The discs are made out of nanostructured glass, and the
data is stored and retrieved using femtosecond laser
writing.
• 5D discs can store information within their interior using
tiny physical structures known as "nanogratings." Much
like those bumpy lines in the CDs.
• Currently unavailable to consumers or most of the
industry until much later.
• Devices would be able to store much more data.
• This technology brings us one step closer to preserve
data for much longer.

21. References
• http://www.sciencealert.com/this-new-5d-data-storage-
disc-can-store-360tb-of-data-for-14-billion-years
• http://www.southampton.ac.uk/news/2016/02/5d-
data-storage-update.page
• http://www.theverge.com/2016/2/16/11018018/5d-
data-storage-glass
• https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/news/5d-data-
storage-how-does-it-work-and-when-can-we-use-it

22. Thank you !!