“Superman 5D Memory Crystal” Pravin S. Bhusari*1, Satish S. More*2, Shubham D. Takwale*3

*1 (Student, Department IT, AEC, Chikhli, India ) *2 (Student, Department IT, AEC, Chikhli, India ) *3 (Student, Department IT, AEC, Chikhli, India )

*1(pravin2bhusari@gmail.com),*2(satishmore1995@gmail.com),*3(shubhamtakwale053@gmail.com)

Abstract –From the beginning of mankind humans

are always trying to find a way to store information

for the future use .Now a days when people hear

the word storage literally they think about storage

devices such as Hard disk, compact disk, Floppy

disk, DVD, Magnetic tape etc. In the beginning of

1980’s first optical device the CD and the CD-

ROM were released .Now a days the magnetic tape

and floppy disks are outdated concepts. Storage

device like Hard Disk having large size, but it can

store data for only3-4 years. Also a new storage

known as cloud storage is also available but it is

also having certain major disadvantages such as

extra charges, accessibility and data security.

A group of scientists from University of

Southampton has developed a five dimensional

optical memory crystal having experimentally

proven a possibility of recording data into

nonstructural glass with the help of high speed

laser ,which creates a self assembled nanostructure

in fused quartz.

Keywords: Dimensional, Nonstructural,

Assembled

1. INTRODUCTION Recently , there have been advances in the field of

digital data storage promising outstanding data

density and long term data storage. A new

technology developed at the University of

Southampton can do both. The name “Superman

memory crystal” given due to its similarities to the

“Memory Crystal” used in the Superman films.

Researchers at the University of Southampton have created an extremely dense and durable

memory crystal that can store 360 TB of data on a single disk for a long term .The structure is made up of glass that can resist a temperature up to 1,000° C and would be perfect for creating portable data archives that can truly stand the lot of time. Information written using a femtosecond laser, which fires extremely short (a few is a millionth of a billionth of a second) and powerful bursts of light a dense three-dimensional nanostructure glass. It is very stable and safe form of portable memory using glass which coiled be highly useful for organization with big achieves. At the moment companies have to back up their their archives every five to ten years because hard drive memory has relatively short life span. The idea of optical memory using femptosecond laser writing in the bulk of transparent material was first put in 1996.[1,4]

The self assembled nanostructure in the glass change the way light travels through it,modifying polarization of light that can be read by combination optical microscope and a polarizer ,similar to that found in Polaroid sunglasses.

2. 5D SUPERMAN MEMORY CRYSTAL The idea of Superman Memory crystal was first

coined in 1996[1,4].The superman memory crystal

can store 360 TB of data on a single disk for

indefinite amount of time. The whole structure is

made up of glass and this glass can resist a

temperature of about 1,000° C (1,800° F)[2,3] and

would be perfect for creating portable data

achieves that can truly stand the test of time. Fused

quartz created from practically pure silica is used as

the core components. The memory can store digital

information across the five dimensions’ as three

dimensions of spaces (x,y,z), Orientation (fourth

dimensions ) and Strength of Retardance(fifth

dimensions) .

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Fig.a: Perpectual 5D Data Storage

3.DATA OPERATIONS

The data is stored in three layers of nanostructured

dots separated by five micrometers. ). Each dot

contains information in the form of the intensity

and polarization of the laser beam. Since there are

five variables – the three dimensions plus

polarization and intensity – it is referred as

technique of "5D data storage.".

The information encoding is realized in five

dimensions :the and orientation in addition to the

three dimensions. The orientation of dot or photon

whether it has bit value 1 or 0.The dots appears as

the visible vortices in the glass under microscope.

3.1 WRITE OPERATION A femtosecond laser is used to write data on the

pure silica glass. Data is written or entered into the

glass via femtosecond laser moving at a high speed.

A femtosecond is millionth of a billionth of a

second. While write operation zero is indicated by

absence of a dot .A ‘dot’ with different reflective

index can be used to denote binary one. The

recording process is done by focusing laser to

imprint tiny dots called ‘vowels ’in pure silica glass

Data is laid o tracks and the tracks are separated by

five micrometers .Nanostructure dots are separated

by one millionth of a meter. Data is recorded at two

different levels retardance (1 bit) and axis

orientation (2 bit).Each dot stores three bits of data.

The current writing speed is 12 Kbits/s but this

could range up to 8 Mbits/s using ferroelectric

liquid crystals

Fig.b: Data Operation

3.2 READ OPERATION A laser scanning device used in optical devices

used in various optical storage devices same is used

in Superman memory crystal of reading data.

Another way of reading data from the memory

crystal is by using microscope and a polarizer. The

surface of the recorded memory crystal contains

large track of data. The surface contains flat

reflective areas and non-reflective bump. Those

areas are detected by using amount of laser light

they reflect. A flat reflalavtive area represents

binary 0 and non-reflective bumps represents

binary 1.The intensity distribution at the focal plane

was modulated via spatial light

simulator(SLM),which splits the incident light onto

256 beams. An adapted weighted Gerchberg-

Saxton is used to set the split beam energy at

several levels at the back focal plane of the

objective. The hologram generated on the SLM is

re-imaged by 4-f optical system. In addition half

wave plate matrix ,imprinted by laser

nanostructuring of fused silica controls polarization.

2

The erasing and rewriting of data is also possible in

superman memory crystal. It is done by replacing

nanograntings by changing direction of polarization.

Fig.c: Read and Write Operation

4. PRESENT AND FUTURE SCOPE 1:Successful implementation of 300KB text file

with a writing speed of 12Kbit/s.

2:Speed can be increased up to 8Mbit/s

3:In future write speed might increased to several

gigabyte per second.

4:Glass is inexpensive and plentiful this technology

has a very good chance to become widely available

in the future.

5. APPLICATIONS 1. Highly useful in companies which have to

take their back up every 3-4 years.

2. Museums can preserve their data for

billions of years.

3. History of mankind can last indefinite

time.

4. Organizations that want to preserve their

information a huge amount of time can use

this technology.

5. Huge amount of data can be stored at a

time on a single disk.

6. CONCLUSION The superman memory crystal offers thermal

stability up to 1,000° C and huge capacity of data

storage that is up to 360 TB of data. This crystal is

completely waterproof and hence water cannot

affect the stored information in it. The crystal will

remain unchanged for millions of years. The crystal

can store the information of any type in digital

form and hence it is highly useful. Due to its

various features this crystal is used in various

fields.

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