VISVESVARAYA TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY,

BELAGAVI – 5900 18

A SEMINAR REPORT ON

“5D OPTICAL DISK DATA STORAGE”

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the award of degree

of

BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING
IN
INFORMATION SCIENCE & ENGINEERING

Submitted By:
SANJAY SHARMA V [4VV18IS407]

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF

D. KHASIM VALI
Associate Professor
Dept of IS&E
VVCE, Mysuru

2020 -2021
DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
VIDYAVARDHAKA COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
MYSURU-5700 02
 Vidyavardhaka College of Engineering
Gokulam III Stage, Mysuru-5700 02

Department of Information Science and

Engineering

CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the seminar report entitled “5D OPTICAL DISK DATA
STORAGE” is a bona fide work carried out by Sanjay Sharma V (4VV18IS407),
student of VIII Semester Information Science and Engineering, Vidyavardhaka College of
Engineering, Mysuru in partial fulfillment for the award of the degree of Bachelor of
Engineering in Information Science & Engineering of the Visvesvaraya Technological
University, Belagavi, during the academic year 2020-2021. It is certified that all the
suggestions and corrections indicated for the internal assessment have been incorporated in
the report deposited in the department library. The report has been approved as it satisfies the
requirements in respect of seminar work prescribed for the said degree.

Signature of the Guide Signature of the HOD

(D. Khasim Vali) (Dr. A B Rajendra)

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The Seminar would not have been possible without the guidance, assistance and suggestions of
many individuals. I would like to express our deep sense of gratitude and indebtedness to each
and every one who has helped me to make this project a success.

We heartily thank our beloved Principal, Dr. B Sadashive Gowda for his whole hearted
support and for his kind permission to undergo the seminar.

We wish to express our deepest gratitude to Dr. A B Rajendra, Head of Department,

Information Science and Engineering, VVCE, for his constant encouragement and inspiration
in taking up this seminar.

We gracefully thank our seminar guide, D. Khasim Vali, Associate professor, Dept. of
Information Science and Engineering for their encouragement and advice throughout the course
of the seminar work.

In the end, we are anxious to offer our sincere thanks to our family members and friends for
their valuable suggestions and encouragement.

SANJAY SHARMA V
(4VV18IS407)
 ABSTRACT

Securely storing large amounts of information over relatively short timescales of 100 years,
comparable to the span of the human memory, is a challenging problem. Conventional optical
data storage technology used in CDs and DVDs has reached capacities of hundreds of gigabits
per square inch, but its lifetime is limited to a decade. DNA based data storage can hold
hundreds of terabytes per gram, but the durability is limited. The major challenge is the lack of
appropriate combination of storage technology and medium possessing the advantages of both
high capacity and long lifetime. The recording and retrieval of the digital data with a nearly
unlimited lifetime was implemented by femtosecond laser nanostructuring of fused quartz. The
storage allows unprecedented properties including hundreds of terabytes per disc data capacity,
thermal stability up to 1000 °C, and virtually unlimited lifetime at room temperature opening a
new era of eternal data archiving.

The concept is the bulk storing of data optically in non-photosensitive transparent materials
such as fused quartz, which is renowned for its high chemical stability and resistance. Writing
into it using a femtosecond-laser was first proposed and demonstrated in 1996. The storage
media consists of fused quartz where the spatial dimensions, intensity, polarization, and
wavelength is used to modulate data. By introducing gold or silver nanoparticles embedded in
the material, their plasmonic properties can be exploited.

The format has a novel method of storing data called "5-dimensional". This is more for
marketing purposes since the device has 3 physical dimensions and no exotic higher
dimensional properties. The fractal/holographic nature of its data storage is also purely 3-
dimensional.

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. This may sound
like science fiction, but it's basically a really fancy optical illusion. In this case, the 5
dimensions inside of the discs are the size and orientation in relation to the 3-dimensional
position of the nanostructures. 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. Basically, each disc has multiple layers of micro and macro
level images.
 CONTENTS

Chapter 1 Page no

INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................1
1.1 Importance of Optical Data Storage...................................................1
1.2 Breaking the Storage-Capacity limit by Multiplexing.......................3

Chapter 2
ARCHITECTURE.................................................................................................6
2.1 Rewriting and Durability of Structure in Glass.................................6
2.2 Data Recording …………………………………………………….8
2.3 Readout results and optimization…………………………………11

Chapter 3
Lifetime………...…............................................................................................17
3.1 Lifetime of nanostructured glass....................................................17

CONCLUSION.....................................................................................................20

REFERENCES......................................................................................................21
 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure name Page no

Figure 1:a) Binary 3D data pattern stored in fused silica by femtosecond laser...3
b) Multiplexed 5D optical memory using gold nanorods……………....3

Figure 2: Secondary electron image of femtosecond laser induced nanogratings.4

Figure 3:a) optical transmission image…………………………………………..5

b) slow axis orientation…………………………………………………5
c) induced phase retardation……………………………………………5
d) false colours the recorded information………………………………5
e) Einstein’s portrait imprinted in amorphous silicon thin-films……….5

Figure 4: Rewriting laser-induced nanogratings………………………………...6

Figure 5: Laser induced birefringence value in fused silica……………………..7

Figure 6: 5D optical storage ultrafast writing setup……………………………...8

Figure 7: The schematic illustration of data storage……………………………10

Figure 8:a) Color-coded slow axis orientation………………………………….11

b) Intensity profile of thelinearly polarized light ……………………..11

Figure 9: 5D optical storage readout……………………………………………12

Figure 10: Retrieved text from 5D optical data…………………………….......13

Figure 11: Retardance dependence on 16 different slow axis orientations…….14

Figure 12:a) Four layers of laser-induced birefringent spots…………………..15

b) Readout the data without and with optimization…………………15

Figure 13: Schematic drawing of fast birefringence measurement system…….16

Figure 14: Arrhenius plot of nanogratings decay rate………………………….18

Figure 15: Schematic illustrations of typical lifetimes of different data

storage approaches……………………………………………………………...19
 5D Optical Disk Data Storage

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Importance of optical data storage

The evolution of information storage during the history of mankind involves four distinct eras:
painted information, carved information, scripted information and digitalized information.1,2 The
modern binary number system was first introduced by Gottfried Leibniz in 1703, who was
inspired by a Chinese binary system called I Ching. The first modern breakthrough of digitization
came in 1801 when the Jacquard loom was first demonstrated. The Jacquard loom simplified
complex manufacturing textiles processes by controlling a chain of punched cards in a continuous
sequence. The invention of this device enabled complex operations and data storage through
paper punched cards. The first semiconductor diode in 1906 eventually allowed electronic circuit
and data storage to become a reality.

Through the 20th century, one of the main innovations for data storage came about with the
invention of optical discs (CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays). With high speed rotation drives (around 10,000
rpm), the writing rate of a Blu-ray disc could achieve around 100 MB/s. This development
provided the ability to store large quantities of data in a weightless (around 20 g), small (standard
12 cm diameter) and high capacity (up to 1 TB) DVD or Blu-ray disc. With the invention of the
laser diode (a gallium arsenide semiconductor diode firstly demonstrated in 1962) made it
possible to compress the whole optical disc reading and writing system in a very compact form.
As a result, the CD, DVD and Blu-ray read/write technology are ubiquitous in everyday life:
laptops, video game consoles, cars, portable CD players, etc.

In the 21st century, the ability to store and access data is growing rapidly with the internet
bringing all forms of information technology to everyone’s fingertips. We cannot deny that this
tangibility of information has made life faster, informative and more enjoyable than ever.
However with this ability, every individual or company that is generating large amounts of data
on a daily basis, which in turn introduces the desperate need of more efficient forms of data
storage. The International Data Corporation investigated that total capacity of data stored is
increasing by around 60% each year.3 As a result, more than 39,000 exabytes of data will be
generated by 2020.4 This amount of data will cause a series of problems and one of the main will
be power consumption. 1.5% of the total US electricity consumption in 2010 was given to the
data centres in the U.S.2 According to a report by the Natural Resources Defence Council, the
power consumption of all data centres in the U.S. will reach roughly 140 billion kilowatt-hours
per each year by 2020.5 This amount of electricity is equivalent to that generated by roughly
thirteen Heysham 2 nuclear power stations (one of the biggest stations in UK, net 1240 MWe).

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 5D Optical Disk Data Storage

Most of these data centres are built based on hard-disk drive (HDD), with only a few designed on
optical discs. HDD is the most popular solution for digital data storage according to the
International Data Corporation.2 However, HDD is not an energy efficient option for data
archiving; the loading energy consumption is around 0.04 W/GB.6 In addition, HDD is an
unsatisfactory candidate for long-term storage due to the short lifetime of the hardware and
requires transferring data every two years to avoid any loss. Therefore, the techniques which
exhibit high capacity, low energy consumption and long lifetimes are essential for the future.
Recent attempts to develop long-term and high-capacity data storage and to prove that the data
will survive for millions to billions of years have been promising. However, despite the space
eternal memory concepts, the proposed alternative technologies storing information on DNA,
silicon-nitride/tungsten based medium, microscopically etched/electroformed nickel plates are
technologically expensive and slow to be practical.

The current solution is the optical disc technique, which only holds a small percentage of data
centres usage at present. Due to the fact that data cannot be reached instantaneously, optical disc
is not the best option for major storage. Nevertheless, since energy is mainly consumed during the
initial data writing process, optical discs is more economic in energy usage. The optical disc drive
will stay idle after the data is well written. Hence, the advantages such as low price and reduced
energy consumption makes the optical disc system the ideal system for data archiving and internet
backup currently. It enables the storage of thousands of optical discs and read/write, transfer and
placement of the discs simultaneously. The specific disc, which contains data from any one user,
will be picked up and transferred to the read/write drive before accessing based on user habits.
This kind of optical-disc-based data storage system can lower the cost and spend less energy,
meanwhile ensuring that users can access files from their own terminals instantly.

We believe that optical data storage, well known for its green characteristics, will be the
mainstream technique for data archiving in the near future. The main kind of optical discs
employed for data archiving in big data centres are Blu-ray discs, which are limited to tens of
GBs. However, can the GB-scale Blu-ray disc cope with the explosive demand of data storage? In
2020, tons of Blu-ray discs will occupy tremendous amounts space (about 34 round trips to the
moon with Blu-ray discs).4 Therefore, an optical disc which enables high capacity is essential for
our future needs. Currently optical data storage is based in predominantly planar technology,
which exploits the linear light absorption of the material, thus is constrained to the surface
modification. In addition, planar technology is limited in the number of modification layers,
consequently restricting the capacity. In order to further expand the potential optical data storage
capacity, a volumetric approach was suggested, known as 3D optical memory, where data can be
stored in multiple layers making use of the whole volume of the material

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 5D Optical Disk Data Storage

1.2 Breaking the storage-capacity limit by multiplexing

Securely storing large amounts of information over even relatively short timescales of 100 years,
comparable to the human brain lifetime, is a challenging problem. A general rule of thumb,
defined in particular by the diffusion process, is as storage density increases, the lifetime of said
storage will decrease. For example, vast amounts of data written by individual atoms can only be
stored for 10 ps at room temperature The conventional optical data storage technology used for
CDs and DVDs has reached capacities of hundreds of gigabits per square inch, but its lifetime is
limited to several decades. The major challenge is the lack of appropriate storage technology and
medium possessing the advantages of both high capacity and long lifetime. Unlike CD, DVD
and Blu-ray discs, which need to add the extra layers physically, the three dimensional (3D)
optical storage technique can write potentially thousands of layers (Figure 1 (a)). Latest
developments in 3D optical memory has achieved an approximate capacity of 10 TB in a small
spot size of 100 nm by utilizing a dual beam technique named super-resolution photoinduction-
inhibition nanolithography (SPIN). This technology provides the possibility of breaking the
diffraction barrier and achieving the smallest features at sizes down to 9 nm.

Figure 1. (a) Binary 3D data pattern stored in fused silica by femtosecond laser. (b) Multiplexed
5D optical memory using gold nanorods. The patterns were fabricated using different
wavelengths and polarization states as 4th and 5th dimensions.

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Normally in a single memory cell or voxel, only 1 bit of data can be stored. However, there is
the potential of storing more than one bit in a single voxel by implementing multiplex
technology. As a result, the total storage capacity can be further increased alongside readout
speed. This approach can be applied in materials which exhibit sensitivity to not only the
intensity of the light source used to read but also to other properties of light. The signal can then
be read in several independent channels, thus enabling multiplexing of data. Several parameters
like polarization, wavelength, space, fluorescence have all been deliberated as the additional
dimensions for optical data storage. Various materials have been implemented for multi-
dimensional data storage such as silver clusters embedded in glass and gold (Figure 1 (b)) or
silver nanoparticles. The method of data multiplexing is an alternative to holographic data
storage which overcomes the capacity limit dictated by optical diffraction. Optical recording
based on femtosecond laser writing exhibits two advantages due to its ability in high-precision
and high-energy deposition. It was first proposed and demonstrated in photopolymers, later in
the bulk of non-photosensitive glass. More recently polarization multiplexed writing was
demonstrated by using self-assembled nanogratings produced by ultrafast laser writing in
semiconductor thin-films34 or fused quartz. The nanogratings, featuring 20 nm embedded
structures (Figure 2), the smallest ever produced by light. Despite several attempts to explain the
physics of the peculiar self-organization process, the formation of these nanostructures still
remains debatable. On the macroscopic scale, the self-assembled nanostructure behaves as a
uniaxial optical crystal with negative birefringence. The optical anisotropy, which results from
the alignment of the nanogratings, referred to as form birefringence, is of the same order of
magnitude as positive birefringence in crystalline quartz.

Figure 2. Secondary electron image of femtosecond laser induced nanogratings in silica glass
with the schematic diagram of its slow axis angle () and retardance value (R), where nx’, ny’
are refractive indices corresponding to slow and fast axis, and d is the thickness of induced
structure.
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The two independent parameters describing birefringence, the slow axis orientation (4th
dimension) and strength of retardance (5th dimension, defined as a product of the birefringence
and length of structure) (Figure 3), were explored for the optical encoding of information in
addition to three spatial coordinates. The slow axis orientation and the retardance are
independently manipulated by the polarization and intensity of the incident beam. As a result,
the
polarization and intensity multiplexing increases the amount of data held per modification spot.
Simultaneously the reading speed is increased since more number of bits can be retrieved by
reading one modification spot compared to conventional data storage where each physical spot
contains only one bit.

Figure 3. Images demonstrating multi-dimensional optical printing. “Small World Map” (a)
optical transmission image of the laser-induced nanogratings with its space-variant (b) slow axis
orientation and (c) induced phase retardation. (d) Images, from left to right, representing in false
colours the recorded information in slow axis and retardance, and decoupled portraits of
Maxwell and Newton. (e) Einstein’s portrait imprinted in amorphous silicon thin-films. Arrows
indicate the polarization states used for extracting the image.

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Chapter 2

ARCHITECTURE

2.1 Rewriting and durability of structures in glass

Besides the benefits of multiplexing, the 5D optical data based on nanogratings can be also
erased and rewritten, which are two important features when considering data storage. The initial
nanogratings can be replaced with new ones whose direction is dependent on the incident rewrite
laser beam. The rewriting process can be clearly observed in Figure 4 (a-d), where the original
spot is rewritten with 3, 30, 300 and 4000 pulses of a beam with a laser polarization rotated by
45°. 200 pulses should be enough to erase the previous induced birefringence signal while not
generating a strong new signal from the rewrite laser pulses (Figure 4. 4 (e)). About 2000 pulses
could completely rewrite the structure, which has the same birefringence signal as the original
one.

Figure 4. Rewriting laser-induced nanogratings with (a) 3, (b) 30, (c) 300 and (d) 4000 pulses.
The rewrite polarization is at 45 to the original polarization. (e) Intensity of the birefringence
signal as a function of number of rewrite laser pulses where the input polarization is at 45 to
the original nanogratings (red squares), and at 45 to the replacement nanogratings (blue dots).

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The 5D optical storage technique applied to fused silica is ideal due to fused silica’s high
chemical and thermal stability (Figure 5), making fused silica the ideal medium for long term
data storage. Latest studies have demonstrated a fused silica based long lifetime 3D optical
memory that has a data capacity equivalent to a DVD disc. Additional evaluation results indicate
that this optical memory possesses a lifetime of over 319 million years.

Figure 5. Laser induced birefringence value in fused silica as a function of annealing

temperature. Pulse energy was set to 1.60 J (black dots) and 2.14 J (red triangles). The
situation for 5D optical memory is even superior. Previous studies indicate that the phase
retardance only starts to
drop at 800℃, but the difference of the phase retardance generated by two levels of energy
remains almost the same.46 This behaviour is beneficial for the memory application. Even if the
birefringence signal drops after a certain period of time or under some special conditions, the
data will still be readable as long as the difference between each signal level is sufficient.

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2.2 Data recording

Data recording experiments were performed with an Yb:KGW based femtosecond laser system
(Pharos, Light Conversion Ltd.) operating at 1030 nm and delivering 6.3 μJ pulses at 200 kHz
repetition rate and pulse duration tunable from 270 fs to 800 fs. Even though longer pulse
duration can induce higher retardance (80 nm), it also leads to higher stress accumulation and
eventual material cracking. As a result, the pulse duration was set to 280 fs. Three modification
layers were inscribed with a femtosecond laser 130-170 μm below the surface of a fused quartz
(SiO2 glass) sample by a 1.2 NA (×60) water immersion objective.

In the recording procedure, groups of birefringent dots were simultaneously imprinted at the
designated depth (Figure 6). Each group, containing from 1 to 100 dots, was generated with a
liquid crystal based spatial light modulator (SLM) and 4d optical system. The holograms for the
SLM were generated with an adapted weighted Gerchberg-Saxton (GSW) algorithm, which
enabled discretized multi-level intensity control. The discretized multi-level intensity control
enabled data multiplexing via retardance. By using the adapted GSW algorithm, several discrete
levels of intensity could be achieved with a single hologram.51 However, the algorithm controls
only the relative ratio of different intensity levels. As the number of dots varies from one
hologram to another, the absolute intensity of each spot varies. Thus, the corresponding intensity
levels generated by different holograms are different and create fluctuations of the retardance
value from one hologram to another. The problem is resolved by introducing a negative feedback
loop into the algorithm, which redistributes the surplus of energy out of the modification region,
fixing each intensity level generated by all holograms to the certain value. The excess energy is
blocked by an aperture (AP) placed after the half-wave plate matrix (HPM) and does not affect
data recording.

Figure 6. 5D optical storage ultrafast writing setup. FSL and FL represent femtosecond laser and
Fourier lens, respectively. SLM and HPM represent spatial light modulator and half-wave plate
matrix. AP and WIO are the aperture and water immersion objective (1.2 NA). Linearly
polarized (white arrows) light with different intensity levels propagate simultaneously through
each half-wave plate segment with different slow axis orientation (black arrows). The colours of
the beams indicate different intensity levels.
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The oriented slow axis is perpendicularly to the polarization of the incident beam. Hence, the
azimuth of the slow axis can be controlled by the polarization of the incident beam, which is
normally accomplished by rotating a half-wave plate. However, the rotation takes a relatively
long time (>10 ms) and considerably reduces writing speed. To avoid this, a laser imprinted half-
wave plate matrix (see HPM in Figure 6, made of 4 segments) was added to the 4d optical
system enabling motion free polarization control. In the focus plane of the first Fourier lens,
where the half-wave plate matrix was placed, several beams with different intensity distributions
were projected by the hologram displayed on the SLM. After passing through the segments of
the half-wave plate matrix, beams with different polarizations were obtained. Subsequently, the
plane of the half-wave plate matrix that contains predefined intensity and polarization
distribution is reimaged directly into the sample by the microscope objective. After
synchronizing the movement of the sample with the refresh rate of the SLM, multiple
birefringent dots with four slow axis orientations and various phase retardance levels can be
simultaneously imprinted (Figure 7). The information was encoded into two states of retardance
and four states of slow axis orientation. Thus, each birefringent dot contained 3 bits of
information.

The writing setup, which is illustrated in Figure 6.6, required a particular writing procedure to
achieve data recording. A group of beams with different intensity levels were projected by the
first Fourier lens (FL 1) onto the half-wave plate matrix (HPM), which consisted of four
different half-wave plate segments each with different slow axis orientations as seen in Figure
6.6. The half-wave plate matrix was fabricated by the ultrafast laser nanostructuring process
described in details elsewhere.45 After propagation through the matrix, four groups of beams
with different polarizations were forme. D By synchronising the movement of the sample with
the refresh rate of the SLM, all polarization states could be recorded into one layer. In 7, the
recording process was depicted inside a 3×3 dot region (yellow square in Figure 7). The whole
region could be completely filled after four laser exposures. Simultaneously, additional dots with
information were
printed outside of this 3×3 dot region, thus effectively making the data recording rate much
higher. Following this recording procedure, the motion-free polarization and intensity control for
5D optical data recording could be accomplished. The spots distribution during one laser
exposure was defined by the polarization states of the spots and orientations of the half-wave
plate matrix following the writing manners. Afterwards, the distributions of spots were handed
over to a computer workstation for producing holograms. Then the produced holograms were
automatically
numbered, stored and later used during the laser writing process.

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Figure 7. The schematic illustration of data storage by the femtosecond laser direct writing
technique. The digital data is encoded in spatially variant polarization states of modification
spots and divided into the regions whose size is defined by the number of spots and its density.
The half-wave plate designed of four sub-regions with different orientations of optical axis (red,
green, violet and blue) is fabricated and placed before the objective lens. Changing the computer
generated holograms, the multi-beam patterns are formed and specific sub-regions of the wave
plate are illuminated. Simultaneously controlling the spatial position of the substrate, the target
distribution of spots is written in glass. Black spots indicate the original polarization state of the
beam. Numbers indicate the specific region of the spots matrix.

Additionally, more states of polarization can be exploited for data encoding by fabricating a half-
wave plate matrix with more than four segments (Figure 8). The number of intensity states can
also be increased by changing the hologram generation parameters. Consequently, these added
states, limited by the resolutions of the slow axis orientation (4.7°) and the retardance (5 nm),
can enable more than one byte per modification spot with the current birefringence measurement
system. By recording data with a 1.4 NA objective and shorter wavelength (250-350 nm), a disc
(4.7 inches in diameter and 1.2 mm thickness) with the capacity of 360 TB can be recorded. As a
result, the storage density of the 5D optical memory reaches 439 TB/inch.

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Figure 8. (a) Color-coded slow axis orientation of half-wave plate matrix imprinted in silica
glass. (b) Intensity profile of the linearly polarized light transmitted through the wave plate
matrix and linear polarizer.

2.3 Readout results and optimization

The readout of the recorded information encoded in nanostructured glass was performed with a
quantitative birefringence measurement system (Abrio, CRi Inc.) integrated into an optical
microscope (BX51, Olympus Inc.). Light from a halogen lamp was circularly polarized and
filtered with a bandpass filter at 546 nm. After being transmitted through the layers containing
information, the signal was collected with a 0.6 NA objective and the state of polarization was
characterized with a universal liquid crystal analyzer.

Typical values of the retardance measured in the experiments was 40 nm. Using this system,
three birefringent layers separated by 20 μm in depth could be easily resolved (Figure 9 (a), (b)).
The phase retardance (Figure 9 (c)) and slow axis orientation (Figure 9 (d)) was extracted from
the raw data, then normalized (Figure 9 (e) and (f)) and discretized before the final result was
achieved (Figure 9 (g) and (h)).

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Figure 9. 5D optical storage readout. (a) Birefringence measurement of the data record in three
separate layers. (b) Enlarged 5×5 dots array. Pseudo colour indicated the orientation of slow
axis. (c) Retardance distribution retrieved from the top data layer. (d) Slow axis distribution
retrieved from the top data layer. Enlarged normalized (e) retardance and (f) slow axis matrices
with its corresponding (g), (h) retrieved binary data.

The information was decoded by combining two binary data sets retrieved from the phase
retardance and the slow axis orientation. Out of 11664 bits, which were recorded in three layers,
only 42 bits errors were obtained (Figure 10). Most of the errors were recurring and can be
removed by additional calibration procedures, which accounts for the retardance dependence on
polarization. In the 5D optical storage readout shown in Figure 9 (a)), the distance between two
adjacent spots was 3.7 μm and the distance between each layer was 20 μm. Applying the same
writing method on a disc of conventional CD size with 60 layers, 18 GB capacity can be
achieved. Using the same parameters it was also successfully recorded across three layers a
digital copy of a 310 KB file in PDF format.38 Furthermore, it was noticed that some of the
errors are shown frequently in the retrieved text. The retardance value of spots induced by
different polarizations but same intensity depends on the slow axis orientations resulting in
repeated errors in Figure 10. This polarization dependence effect could be related to the pulse
front tilt of ultrashort light pulses.

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Figure 10. Retrieved text from 5D optical data. The letters with errors were bolded.

A series of dots were imprinted in fused silica by 400 laser pulses with 16 different polarizations
and two levels of energy (Figure 11). The energies were set to 50 nJ and 75 nJ. The distribution
of retardance values induced by different polarizations follow a sinusoidal dependence. In order
to optimize the readout process, additional calibration has to be implemented. In this case, the
predefined retardance reference value must be set differently according to the slow axis
orientations.

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Figure 11. Retardance dependence on 16 different slow axis orientations written by (a) 400
pulses with pulse energies of 50 nJ (Energy I) and 75 nJ (Energy II) at 200 kHz repetition rate.

A paragraph from Encyclopedia Britannica about Sir Isaac Newton was recorded in silica glass.
There were four modification layers, separated by 5 μm. In order to reduce the crosstalk between
layers, generate less stress and increase the optical storage capacity, the dots were arranged
similarly to a body-centred cubic geometry (Figure 12 (a)). When the birefringence measurement
microscope was used to focus on the specific layer, the other layers were out of focus and did not
affect the measurement values. This arrangement scheme increases the capacity four times in
comparison to the one with 20 μm layer separation. There were 1087 Bytes of data being
recorded in four modification layers. The first word in this recorded Encyclopaedia Britannica
paragraph is illustrated indicating how the optimization influenced the final readout results (12
(b)). By using
the readout method modified according to the experimental results, the error rate was reduced to
0.22% (19 out of 8696 bits) compared to 0.36% previously.

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Figure 12. (a) Four layers of laser-induced birefringent spots distributed in a body-centred cubic
lattice. Measured retardance value is normalized to maximum. (b) Readout the data without and
with optimization, where the retardance reference value is set differently according to the slow
axis orientations.

Many commercialized birefringence measurement systems require electrically controlled

retarders and several intensity images to retrieve the birefringence distribution. Therefore, it is
not suitable for memory readout systems where a high sampling rate is essential. To overcome
this problem, the real-time birefringence measurement system proposed by T.Onuma and
Y.Otani can be employed. The core device in the system is a matrix of four linear polarizers as
analysers with their optical axes oriented at 0°, 45°, 90° and 135°. Similar to a Bayer mask used
in colour-sensitive camera with four independent colour filters assembled into one pixel, the
matrix operates as a linear polarizer with four separate orientations. In addition, by applying the
technology based on ultrafast laser nanostructuring, the analysers of tens of micrometres size
with different orientations were fabricated. The half-wave plates oriented at 0°, 22.5°, 45°, 67.5°
and a linear polarizer are equivalent to the four linear polarizers as required. Each polarizer
matches each pixel of the CCD matrix one by one (Figure 13).

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Figure 13. Schematic drawing of fast birefringence measurement system: band-pass filter for 546
nm (BPF), linear polarizer (P), quarter-wave plate (Q), condenser, objective lens, half-wave
plates array, linear polarizer and CCD camera. The colours of the wave plates array indicate
different optical axis orientation.

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Chapter 3

Lifetime

3.1 Lifetime of nanostructured glass

The femtosecond laser induced nanogratings comprise of periodic assembly of nanoplanes with
20 nm thickness separated by about 300 nm. Close investigation reveals that refractive index of
nanoplanes is reduced due to material porosity. The formation of porous regions consisting of
nanovoids filled with oxygen could be explained by the following mechanism: femtosecond
irradiation of silica glass produces self-trapped excitons with a lifetime of several microseconds.
Recombination of self-trapped excitons is accompanied by generation of molecular oxygen due
to the photosynthesis-like reaction,

SiO  X Si O

where X denotes an exciton. The nanovoids could collapse with time leading to disappearance of
the form birefringence of the modified region. Previous annealing experiments indicated that
such modification can withstand at least 2 hours of thermal annealing at 1000°C. However the
accelerated aging measurements are required to evaluate the stability of nanogratings at room
temperature and estimate the activation energy of nanovoids collapse. The thermally activated
decay time τ at the certain temperature T can be evaluated by Arrhenius law:

where k – decay rate, Ea – the activation energy, A – the frequency factor, T – the absolute
temperature and kB – the Boltzmann constant. The decay rate was evaluated at several annealing
temperatures in the range from 1173 K to 1373 K, where measurable retardance change could be
observed, by measuring the relative retardance decrease versus the annealing time (Figure 14
inset). The experiment was performed with four different laser writing energies (0.75 – 1.5 μJ).
The variation of the relative retardance decrease for different energies were within 5%. The
birefringent structures (uniform squares 0.5×0.5 mm) used for these measurements were written
with the same laser setup as described above. A relatively large area of the written structures was
chosen to increase the precision and repeatability of retardance change measurements. From the
obtained information, decay times at certain temperatures were evaluated and placed on the
Arrhenius plot. The decay time at lower temperatures was easily extrapolated by a linear fit
(Figure 14).

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The best linear fit was obtained with activation energy of 1.81±0.07 eV (thermal energy at room
temperature is about 26 meV) and the frequency factor of 135 Hz. For comparison the activation
energy measured in the erasure of the type I fiber Bragg gratings was 0.79 – 2.04 eV depending
on the sample composition. Assuming the scaling in Figure 14 holds at room temperature (303
K) the decay time of nanogratings is 3⋅1020 ±1 years, indicating unprecedentedly high stability
of nanostructures imprinted in fused quartz. Even at elevated temperatures of T = 462 K, the
extrapolated decay time is comparable with the age of the Universe – 13.8 billion years.
Obviously extrapolation over such a long lifetime is not absolutely correct due to increasing
error. Also it neglects the temperature variation over long period of time, which cannot be easily
evaluated. On the other hand it is clear that if the temperature does not increase drastically, we
would have an optical data storage with seemingly unlimited lifetime.

Figure 14. Arrhenius plot of nanogratings decay rate. Black symbols indicate measured values;
red symbols are calculated based on fitting results. The grey shaded zone indicates the tolerance
of extrapolated values. At the temperature T = 462 K nanogratings would last for the current life
time of the Universe. (Inset) The decay of the strength of retardance with time at different
annealing temperatures.

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The overall data storage techniques can be separated into three most-common groups:
semiconductor, magnetic and optical. Semiconductor data storage such as flash drives and solid-
state drives (SSD) provide a lifespan around ten years. This is due to the floating-gate transistors
in semiconductor based memory becoming unreliable after a number of program/erase cycles.58
Hence, the lifetime of this memory is mostly dependent on its workload, e.g. SSD memory with
heavy workload (320 GB/day) only has 10% of lifetime as compared to the memory with less of
a workload (32 GB/day).

For magnetization-based memory, such as HDD, needs to transfer data every couple of years in
order to prevent data loss, while the data stored in conventional optical discs such as CD, DVD,
HD DVD and Blu-ray only last tens of years. However, already commercialized Millenniata
optical discs (M-DISCTM) claimed that their discs have an extra-long lifetime of up to a 1000
years. Also, void-based optical memory in fused silica indicate a lifetime of 300 million years.
Other schemes such as holographic memory and phase change memory can only reach the
lifetime of a few decades. Data storage approaches are compared in Figure 15 in order to give a
more intuitive view of storage lifetimes.

Figure 15. Schematic illustrations of typical lifetimes of different data storage approaches.

5D optical memory with its nearly unlimited lifetime is superior to other memory solutions.
Additional guides stored as visual information could be easily used as a key for the further
decoding processes.

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CONCLUSION

The recording of a digital document into a highly stable memory is a vital process towards an
eternal archiving. Although digital data storage techniques are capable of storing huge amounts
of information, the lifetime is limited to decades. Recent progress in memory technologies
allowed to encode the information that is capable of surviving for billions of years.7 The
successful implementation of femtosecond laser nanostructured fused quartz as high-density and,
assuming the scaling of Arrhenius plot holds, long-lifetime storage medium enabled the
demonstration of eternal 5D optical memory. The storage allows hundreds of terabytes per disc
data capacity, thermal stability up to 1000°C and nearly unlimited lifetime at room temperature.
We believe that the eternal 5D optical data storage in glass can be produced on a commercial
scale for organizations, such as national archives, museums, libraries or any private companies.
Also, the projects such as “Time Capsule to Mars”,64 “Moon Mail”,65 or “Lunar Mission
One”66 could benefit from the extreme durability of data imprinted by femtosecond laser in
quartz glass, which is essential for preserving comprehensive information and storing it in space
for future generations. More futuristically, “text messaging to the future” could be now possible.
Could the technology of the future be advanced enough to send the reply?

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