From magnetic tapes of the 1920s to the near infinite scalability of the Cloud today, scientists and engineers have been seeking increasing amounts of capable data storage technologies to contain the more than 2.5 million terabytes of data we produce every day. Scientists at the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience at the Delft University of Technology have pushed the nano-physical limit of memory archive by developing a technology that uses individual atoms to represent a single bit of data.
As technology has evolved, the prevalence of everything from IoT sensors and software to social media and cell phone signals has generated a wealth of new digital information, so much so that 90% of the data in the world today was created in the last two years alone. Traditional data storage methods that rely on grains of magnetic material or holes burned in plastic are failing to keep up with the increased demand for greater storage capacity — there’s already 2.5 quintillion bytes of information in the world.
The Delft team has developed a copper and chlorine-based storage system that can hold one-kilobyte (8,000 bit) memory on a 96 nm by 126 nm rectangle—approximately 800 times smaller than the width of a human hair. The copper acts as the foundation while chlorine atoms reinforce and stabilize one another in a matrix configuration to create the unique medium. The atomic-scale data storage system has a storage density of 500 terabits per square inch, 500 times denser than premium commercial hard disks. Practically speaking, lead scientist Sander Otte says that the system could theoretically allow every book every written in history to be stored on something the size of a postage stamp.
To accomplish the feat, the Delft team used a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) based on the principle of quantum tunneling , which refers the quantum mechanical phenomenon in which electrons can essentially “tunnel” though seemingly impenetrable barriers. Using a piezoelectric scanning device affixed with a probe attachment ending in an atom-sharp needle tip, the STM can achieve the principle effect.
The probe uses an electrical charge to exploit the flow of electrons created by the quantum tunneling, allowing the STM to be used as a quantum crane for picking up atoms and move them exactly where the scientists want them to go. Each bit consists of two positions on a surface of copper atoms, and one chlorine atom that can be slid back and forth between the two positions. But moving atoms is only half of the system; scientists must then organize the data to make it readable and reliable.
Using eight-byte (64-bit) memory blocks, the team gave each block an individual marker made of a pattern of chlorine atoms in the matrix indicating its location. The markers can also show if a block is damaged.
Storage mediums need to be kept cool and, in its current form, the memory can only operate in very clean vacuum conditions at liquid nitrogen temperature, meaning the actual storage of data at an atomic scale is inapt for commercial use as of its current stage of development. The Delft system is currently in laboratory phase, though the team hopes to make the compact storage system more practical in the near future.
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