Data storage enters the 'fifth dimension from physicsworld.com

[fritzd]

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You have to be a member to read some articles so ako lang gipaste ang summary. hehe! You can register for free. The site is a famous to scientists. The news from this site are real recent recents from some Hardcore physics research going on in the world. =) more 17Gb optical drivers to be expected in the future! wohoooo! hehehehehehe another intersting news i found, its free... Ultra cold atoms help share quantum information - physicsworld.com anyone can open it

Data storage enters the 'fifth dimension'
physicsworld.com

The first DVD–sized discs with storage capacities well over one terabyte could be available in as little as five years, according to researchers in Australia who have invented a new storage technique. The concept, which the researchers have already demonstrated on test media, uses layers of gold nanorods to achieve 'five–dimensional recording'.

Optical discs, such as CDs and DVDs, store data as a spiral track of microscopic pits etched onto their surface. To read the data, light from a laser diode is reflected from the surface and the reflected light drops in intensity every time the beam hits a pit.

With just one layer of pits the storage is two dimensional, and with multiple layers — a method employed in the highest capacity DVDs, providing capacities up to about 17 Gb (17 x 109 bytes) — the storage is three–dimensional.

More dimensions needed

To reach higher capacities, particularly above 1 Tb (1012 bytes) per disc, scientists believe they will need to be able to record in even more 'dimensions'. In recent years there has been success in adding one extra dimension in the form of sensitivity to either the polarization or colour of the laser light, a technique called multiplexing.

Now, however, James Chon and colleagues from Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne have combined both types of multiplexing for five–dimensional recording.

“Previously there has never been an effort to record in all five dimensions,” Chon told physicsworld.com. “This is due to a lack of material that can respond in all five-dimensional recording conditions — colour, polarization and spatial.”
Nanorods to the rescue

For its recording media the Swinburne group use gold nanorods, which respond to different colours and polarizations depending on their apparent size and orientation. When a collection of these nanorods are irradiated with laser light, only those that are aligned to the light’s polarization and have an absorption cross-section matching the light’s wavelength will absorb it, melt and change in shape. Because there are nanorods left unaffected after one recording, more recording cycles can still take place.

To read the data a laser again illuminates the nanoparticles, which begin to resonate with quasi-particles known as plasmons. The plasmon resonance is very sensitive to the incident light’s polarization and colour, and requires a laser that is only a hundredth as powerful, so no more melting takes place.
Compatible with existing technology

In tests using media with three layers of gold nanorods, Chon and colleagues achieved a data storage density of 1.1 Tbit per cubic centimetre, which would equate to 1.6 Tb for a DVD–sized disc. The researchers think that by using thinner spacers between layers the capacity could be increased to 7.2 Tb. Moreover, they say that recording speeds could be as fast as 1 Gbit/s, and the discs would be compatible with existing technology.

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Chon says the group is collaborating with the electronics manufacturer Samsung to commercialize the concept, and hopes to see the first devices on sale in five years. “We have only conducted proof-of-principle experiments,” he adds. “It is our future work for this technology to be transferred to industry, where many challenges will have to be overcome.”

The work was reported in Nature.

[Hellblazer 2.1]

what's the fourth and fifth dimensions?

[fritzd]

what's the fourth and fifth dimensions?

ako gipaste ang whole article...hehehe! anyway from what i know, the dimensions maybe are not exactly physical spatial dimensions. Sa ordinary CD, you just etch a 0 or 1 bit to a layer around a circle, so in this way you have 2D. If you make more layers (DVD), then you have 3D and more information. If you make more layers, and be able to control sa shape of the area that you have etching in the optical storage device, then you have 4D (bluerays). Lisod i-explain.. pero imagine lang sa surface sa blueray disc naay gihapoy bits like dvds and cds pero ang bits kay naa particular shape sa pag etch, maybe rectagular, rounded, or triangular which is actually information. So the dimensions in this case are degrees of freedom.

Sa kani ilang research they tried to implement another degree of freedom (another dimension) to store information. THey are trying to use nanorods. I can't fully explain because its not my field. hehehe! I just tried explain what I learned in classes and through reading. hehe =)

[Hellblazer 2.1]

if it's a disk, does it make it thicker?

[rodsky]

what's the fourth and fifth dimensions?

The additional dimensions discussed in the article do not refer to spatial dimensions, but rather, an "extension" of the physical, via virtual representation of storage. As discussed in the article, a disc is just two dimensional physically, but if you have several layers of it, you have a third axis to consider (Z), which now translates to thickness of the disc. Since we live and exist in a 3D world, these 3 axes are what we refer to as the spatial axes--we know them, and we can see them directly. However, the fourth and fifth axis, in this virtual data storage method, correspond to a varying of the sensitivity of the device that translates color and polarization to data storage points. And thus, it's actually 3 physical dimensions, plus two virtual dimensions, making 5 dimensions in total.

-RODION

[fritzd]

The additional dimensions discussed in the article do not refer to spatial dimensions, but rather, an "extension" of the physical, via virtual representation of storage. As discussed in the article, a disc is just two dimensional physically, but if you have several layers of it, you have a third axis to consider (Z), which now translates to thickness of the disc. Since we live and exist in a 3D world, these 3 axes are what we refer to as the spatial axes--we know them, and we can see them directly. However, the fourth and fifth axis, in this virtual data storage method, correspond to a varying of the sensitivity of the device that translates color and polarization to data storage points. And thus, it's actually 3 physical dimensions, plus two virtual dimensions, making 5 dimensions in total.

-RODION

yep sir! Spot on! =)

[Hellblazer 2.1]

The additional dimensions discussed in the article do not refer to spatial dimensions, but rather, an "extension" of the physical, via virtual representation of storage. As discussed in the article, a disc is just two dimensional physically, but if you have several layers of it, you have a third axis to consider (Z), which now translates to thickness of the disc. Since we live and exist in a 3D world, these 3 axes are what we refer to as the spatial axes--we know them, and we can see them directly. However, the fourth and fifth axis, in this virtual data storage method, correspond to a varying of the sensitivity of the device that translates color and polarization to data storage points. And thus, it's actually 3 physical dimensions, plus two virtual dimensions, making 5 dimensions in total.

-RODION

yes, not spatial dimensions. fritzd already told me that. but thanks anyway, mr.rodsky.

if this is out on the market already, i think this will revolutionize data storage.

[fritzd]

if it's a disk, does it make it thicker?

It's not that easy. There is a limit in thickness. If you make it thick, you can not spin the disk fast enough to get the desired bit rate. bug.at na kau ang disc.. haha! give or take. hehehe

[Hellblazer 2.1]

It's not that easy. There is a limit in thickness. If you make it thick, you can not spin the disk fast enough to get the desired bit rate. hehe! give or take. hehehe

so its thickness or thinness is exactly the same as with blue-ray dvds?

[fritzd]

so its thickness or thinness is exactly the same as with blue-ray dvds?

wala koy sure.. hehe! wala nakoy knowledge about ana.. But you can research about it... From what I know, they vary the focal length the focused laser beam to access a layer. So ang thickness kay limited pud sa laser optical system nimo. Then there is boding strength sa imong layers. if you try to spin it fast, basin macompromise ang bondings sa layers. they use thin film coatings to make these layers. they use chemical vapour deposition (i think), to deposit the layers inside a vacuum chamber. sa akong experience about thin films, you can't go beyond a certain thickness depending on the material or else the layer would peel off. nya wala pa gani nimo gi spin.. hehehe

my answers are based on what I learned and experienced so far and could be wrong. hehehe =)