Researchers Exploit Crystal Defects to Store Terabytes of Data in a Tiny Shiny Cube

Researchers from the University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, working with the Corning Research & Development Corporation, have come up with an approach to store data in the atomic defects of crystals — scaling to terabytes of data in a crystal cube measuring just 1mm (around 0.04") on a side.

"We found a way to integrate solid-state physics applied to radiation dosimetry with a research group that works strongly in quantum, although our work is not exactly quantum," explains first author Leonardo França. "There is a demand for people who are doing research on quantum systems, but at the same time, there is a demand for improving the storage capacity of classical non-volatile memories. And it's on this interface between quantum and optical data storage where our work is grounded."

That work began with investigations into radiation dosimeters — wearable devices that measure exposure to radiation, ensuring that those who work around radiation sources can remain safe. "There are some materials that have this ability to absorb radiation and store that information for a certain amount of time," França says of how these devices work and how that inspired the project into using the same approach to data storage.

"When the crystal absorbs sufficient energy, it releases electrons and holes," França continues. "And these charges are captured by the defects. We can read that information. You can release the electrons, and we can read the information by optical means. It's impossible to find crystals – in nature or artificial crystals – that don't have defects. So what we are doing is we are taking advantage of these defects."

The team's approach builds on work done entangling crystal defects to the "qubits" of quatum processors, but concentrating on applicability to classical computing: by guiding where and when defects are charged, the team is able to turn the crystals into a high-density data storage device.

"Each memory cell is a single missing atom – a single defect," explains assistant professor Tian Zhong, corresponding author, of the team's work. "Now you can pack terabytes of bits within a small cube of material that's only a millimeter in size. Within that millimeter cube, we demonstrated there are about at least a billion of these memories – classical memories, traditional memories – based on atoms. We're creating a new type of microelectronic device, a quantum-inspired technology."

The team's work has been published under open-access terms in the journal Nanophotonics; no roadmap to commercialization has yet been disclosed.

Main article image courtesy of Zhong Lab/University of Chicago.