- Optera uses photoluminescence instead of lasers for long-term optical storage solutions
- Spectral hole burning encodes data by manipulating nanoscale imperfections in the phosphor lattice.
- Multi-bit encoding allows multiple bits to be stored in each physical location on a storage medium.
Dr Nicholas Risen from the University of South Australia is leading the development of an optical storage archive that records data through photoluminescence instead of physical laser etching.
The technology operates at room temperature and uses relatively inexpensive lasers instead of the femtosecond systems used in some competing glass archives.
The initial implementation of this archive is a 500GB test media planned for 2026, and represents the first step towards larger capacity glass storage.
From discs to glass tablets
Earlier related technology developed by Dr. Nicholas Risen. optical storage based on spectral holes has been explored using various nanoparticle materials.
This work lays the foundation for the current 500GB glass tablet proof of concept, demonstrating a shift from disk-centric experiments to higher-capacity archival formats.
Optera's goal is to provide long-term data storage with lower power requirements, although the project remains experimental.
The recording medium used by Optera is based on a mixed halide fluorobromide or fluorochloride phosphor doped with divalent samarium ions.
This material, known as Ba₀.₅Sr₀.₅FX:Sm²⁺, has a long history of use in computed radiography plates, where photostimulated luminescence has been well studied.
In the Optera system, nanoscale defects in the crystal lattice are deliberately controlled to change the way a material emits after exposure to a laser of a specific wavelength.
Data recording is based on spectral hole burning, in which narrow bands of wavelengths are selectively altered within the phosphor.
When the laser scans these areas during readout, the material either emits photoluminescence or suppresses it.
The detected light signal, or lack thereof, represents stored digital information.
This method avoids physically changing the shape of the media, but increases sensitivity to optical stability and readout accuracy, which has not yet been verified by independent testing.
Optera suggests that it can increase storage density by encoding information through changes in light intensity, rather than relying solely on binary on or off states.
The project describes this approach as offering multi-bit capacity similar to NAND, with SLC, MLC and TLC style bit levels represented by different signal intensities.
Moving this concept from laboratory measurements to repeatable, error-tolerant measurements on a large scale remains an unresolved technical challenge.
According to design documents from optics researcher Dr. Nicholas Riesen, the experimental storage capacity is expected to reach 1 TB in 2027 and several terabytes around 2030.
These targets serve as research milestones, with commercialization dependent on manufacturing partners and economic feasibility.
While the technology holds promise, a number of uncertainties remain.
Practical read and write speeds, multiple access durability, and real-world manufacturing costs are still unknown, leaving its viability beyond experimental studies unresolved.
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