New technology develops fourth generation optical memory

Physicists in the UK have successfully built the first optical memory element with encoding information in the structural phase of a single Galium nanoparticle.

This memory element is about the size of a bit of information stored on the next generation hard disks, but requires much lower energy to reverse the bits between the 0 and 1 states. With DVD and DVR optical discs today. Detailed results have just been published in Physical Review Letters.

The research team led by Bruno Soares at the University of Southampton (UK), has created a new memory element that creates a breakthrough in the functions of optical discs using single nanoparticles, which helps for enhancing optical memory storage capacity by at least twice compared to current computer memory.

Current information storage technology uses the principle of binary storage systems with two states 0 and 1 that can be reversed by manipulating external stimuli. The use of phase change to store information is promising candidates for high density information storage because they use the same energy as electronic memory and storage capacity. higher.

Soares and colleagues created fourth-generation optical logic memory with information encoded in the structural states of individual gallium nanoparticles with a diameter of 80 nm. The researchers created nanoparticles growing on one side of a gold-coated fiber optic cable using atomic beam deposition technology. Information is stored in these particles by using short optical laser pulses to inverse between different states of the Crystal Ga, as well as the liquid state.

Figure 1. Technology for creating Ga nanoparticles on the tip of fiber optics
(According to Phys. Rev. Lett 98 98905, 2007).

"Because different states have different optical properties, the memory state can be controlled by measuring the optical feedback of particles," - Soares explains - "This principle of operation is similar to The principle is being used in electronic phase-shift memories that are being used successfully in flash memory ".

The team also discovered that the energy needed to inverse between two logical states is as low as 1.5pJ (10-12 J), which is one level smaller than the energy needed in most modern hard drives. The current. Moreover, the group also determined that the storage density of this array of Ga nanoparticles could be achieved as 0, 2 Tb / in ² ; Compared to Blu-ray DVD currently has a density of 0.015 Tb / in.

Figure 2. Information bits generated from the state of optical properties of Ga nanoparticles
(According to Phys. Rev. Lett 98 98905, 2007).

Soares told Nanotechweb.org that the size and energy required of this fourth generation memory element means that functionalized memory on the nanoscale can compete with direct competition with technologies. present. "Furthermore, this fourth-generation memory usage allows the creation of a completely new algorithm that computations with complex numbers can be maximally simplified and minimized storage errors" - Soares modifies pulse. At the same time, the group is continuing its research to address individual particles in the nanoparticle array near each other, while also planning to proceed on other materials. The details of the technology have not been specifically stated, but the main results have been published in Physical Review Letters (Phys. Rev. Lett. 98 153905, 2007).

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According to NanotechWeb.org & Physical Review Letters, Vietnamese Physics