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A team of engineers at the University of Science and Technology of China has developed a new way to code data onto a diamond with higher density than prior methods. In their paper in the journal Nature Photonics, the group notes that such optical discs could hold data safely at room temperature for millions of years.

Prior research has shown that it is possible to code data onto a diamond, allowing for much longer data storage than any other known method. But such efforts have produced low-density storage. In this new effort, the research team developed a new method for etching data onto a diamond that allows for much denser data storage, and thus for storing more information onto a single diamond.

In their work, the researchers used diamond pieces just a few millimeters in length—they were pursuing a proof of concept, not a true storage medium. Future versions, they note, could be the size of a Blu-ray disc. The new method involved the use of a laser to remove single carbon atoms from the surface of the diamond, leaving a tiny cavity. The cavity, the researchers note, exhibits a certain level of brightness when another laser is shone on it.

The researchers found that by controlling the energy levels of the writing laser, they could control the degree of brightness of a given site on the diamond by removing certain numbers of atoms. In this way, data can be stored as empty spaces with various brightness levels. A reader laser could then be used to determine the brightness level of a given site, and use that to decode the information.

The research team tested their idea by coding stored images onto a tiny diamond chip and found their method was 99% accurate. They acknowledge that their method is not currently economically viable, however, due to the high cost of the laser, but suggest it could be used for certain high-importance applications.

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