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Titanium Oxide For High-Density Optical Storage

Posted by kdawson on from the fast-cheap-and-in-control dept.

Stoobalou and other readers sent along word of research out of Japan, using a new crystal form of titanium oxide for high-density data storage — promising discs that store 1,000 times more data than Blu-ray does today, up to 25 TB. The material transforms from a black-colored metal state that conducts electricity into a brown semiconductor when hit by light, at room temperature. Titanium oxide's market price is about one-hundredth that of the rare element that is currently used in rewritable Blu-ray discs and DVDs. The material is cheap and safe, and is already being used in many products ranging from face powder to white paint. The researchers successfully created the material in particles measuring as small as 5 nanometers in diameter.

6 of 172 comments (clear)

  1. Slashdotted, Coral cache link by TeknoHog · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://www.redorbit.com.nyud.net/news/technology/1869698/new_disc_could_hold_a_thousand_times_more_data/

    --
    Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
  2. Titanium dioxide? by AliasMarlowe · · Score: 5, Informative

    TFA and TFS both refer to "Titanium oxide" which typically means either TiO or Ti2O3 (Ti in either II or III states). However, both TFS and TFA also assert that the "Titanium oxide" is used in sunscreen and suchlike, which implies it is Titanium dioxide, TiO2 (Ti in IV state), not Titanium oxide.
    Most likely, TFA should have referred to Titanium dioxide, as this is also a semiconductor in crystalline state.

    --
    Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
    1. Re:Titanium dioxide? by NewToNix · · Score: 5, Informative
      A better description is simply 'a Titanium metal oxide' - the phase shift is between Ti3O5 and -Ti3O5. http://www.nature.com/nchem/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nchem.670.html/

      "This is the first demonstration of a photorewritable phenomenon at room temperature in a metal oxide. -Ti3O5 satisfies the operation conditions required for a practical optical storage system (operational temperature, writing data by short wavelength light and the appropriate threshold laser power)."

  3. Something's not right by yanagasawa · · Score: 3, Informative

    Titanium oxide isn't used for pigments - titanium dioxide is.

  4. Safe... Really? by s31523 · · Score: 1, Informative

    According TFA: "You don't have to worry about procuring rare metals. Titanium oxide is cheap and safe, already being used in many products ranging from face powder to white paint"

    Really? Several articles have linked TiO2 to cancer. Yeah, real safe.

  5. Re:Good for archival purposes? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    How stable do you think current non factory-written optical media is for long-term archival storage?

    I recently received 8 CDs of legacy material from a client that a previous contractor had made for them 8 years ago. The disk surfaces were pristine: 4 worked, 1 was recoverable.

    Put me down for "Not super stable."