R&D: Ultralong-Term High-Density Storage with Atomic Defects in SiC

arxiv has published an article written by M. Hollenbach, Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research,Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, 01328 Dresden, Germany, C. Kasper, Experimental Physics 6 and W¨urzburg-Dresden Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat, Julius-Maximilian University of W¨urzburg, 97074 W¨urzburg, Germany, D. Erb, L. Bischoff, G. Hlawacek, Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, 01328 Dresden, Germany, H. Kraus, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA, W. Kada, Faculty of Science and Technology, Gunma University, Kiryu, Gunma 376-8515, Japan, T. Ohshima, National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology, Takasaki, Gunma 370-1292, Japan, and Department of Materials Science, Tohoku University, 6-6-02 Aramaki-Aza, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8579, Japan, M. Helm, Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, 01328 Dresden, Germany, and Technische Universit¨at Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany, S. Facsko, Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, 01328 Dresden, Germany, V. Dyakonov, Experimental Physics 6 and W¨urzburg-Dresden Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat, Julius-Maximilian University of W¨urzburg, 97074 W¨urzburg, Germany, G. V. Astakhov, Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, 01328 Dresden, Germany.

Abstract: “There is an urgent need to increase the global data storage capacity, as current approaches lag behind the exponential growth of data generation driven by the Internet, social media and cloud technologies. In addition to increasing storage density, new solutions should provide long-term data archiving that goes far beyond traditional magnetic memory, optical disks and solid-state drives. Here, we propose a concept of energy-efficient, ultralong, high-density data archiving based on optically active atomic-size defects in a radiation resistance material, silicon carbide (SiC). The information is written in these defects by focused ion beams and read using photoluminescence or cathodoluminescence. The temperature-dependent deactivation of these defects suggests a retention time minimum over a few generations under ambient conditions. With near-infrared laser excitation, grayscale encoding and multi-layer data storage, the areal density corresponds to that of Blu-ray discs. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the areal density limitation of conventional optical data storage media due to the light diffraction can be overcome by focused electron-beam excitation.“