An international research team led by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) is proposing a new concept for long-term data storage based on atomic defects in the semiconductor material silicon carbide.
These defects are incorporated by a focused beam of protons or helium ions(see illustration). This ensures precise details, a high writing speed and low energy for storing a single bit. The information is read out using cathode luminescence or photoluminescence(see illustration). The stored information could disappear from the defects again depending on the conditions under which the medium is stored, but this "switching off" is dependent on the ambient temperature. Previous observations indicate a minimum archiving time of several generations under normal conditions.
The approach can also be extended to other materials with optically active defects, including two-dimensional materials.
