Multi-Dimensional Shingled Optical Recording by Nanostructuring in Glass

In the digital era, the need for high-density data storage techniques has become increasingly imperative. To address this, the study has demonstrated a multi-dimensional shingled optical recording technique, utilizing femtosecond laser-induced nanostructures in silica glass. The evolution of the bulk nanostructures is investigated on a pulse-by-pulse basis using multiple microscopic analysis techniques. The formation of the nanostructures is attributed to a self-adaptive near-field anisotropic nanostructuring process. Furthermore, it is shown that writing in a 3D shingled configuration significantly reduces the volume per data voxel to a size of 500 nm x 500 nm x 1.0 mu m, surpassing the diffraction limit. This reduction is achieved even when employing an infrared laser and a relatively low numerical aperture objective lens. As a result, the approach increases the data storage capacity by at least two orders of magnitude compared to conventional techniques. The work paves the way for advanced shingled optical recording techniques offering ultra-dense capacity, ultra-long lifetime, and low energy consumption. A high-capacity multi-dimensional shingled optical recording technique is introduced in silica glass using femtosecond lasers. Through a 3D shingled configuration, data voxel volume is reduced to 500 nm x 500 nm x 1.0 mu m, breaking the diffraction limitation. The insights from this work may inspire applications in optical data storage, sensor, microfluidic, micro-mechanics, geometric phase elements, photonic crystal, and quantum mechanics.image