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Terabit-scale high-fidelity diamond data storage

Nature Photonics volume 18, pages 1327–1334 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

In the era of digital information, realizing efficient and durable data storage solutions is paramount. Innovations in storage capacity, data throughput, device lifespan and energy consumption are pressing necessities for the continuous progression of practical digital data storage technologies. Here we present a diamond storage medium that exploits fluorescent vacancy centres as robust storage units and provides a high storage density of 14.8 Tbit cm−3, a short write time of 200 fs and an estimated ultralong maintenance-free lifespan on the scale of millions of years. High-speed readout through plane and volume imaging is demonstrated with a high fidelity exceeding 99%, showing that the approach addresses the practical demands of digital data storage and provides a promising solution for future storage requirements.

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Fig. 1: The concept of diamond storage medium.
Fig. 2: Luminescence intensity multiplexing.
Fig. 3: Multi-layer data storage and parallel readout.
Fig. 4: Multi-plane readout and parallel writing.

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Data availability

The data used to produce the plots within this paper are available via figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.26322568 (ref. 59).

Code availability

The necessary code used to produce the plots within this paper are available via figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.26322568 (ref. 59).

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Acknowledgements

We thank Q. Chen for technical support in the femtosecond direct writing system; D. Liu for help in image denoising; and G. Muratori for granting us permission to use his painting. This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers T2325023, 92265204, T2125011, 12104446, 12104447, 12274400 and 123B1019), the CAS (GJJSTD20200001), the Innovation Program for Quantum Science and Technology (grant number 2021ZD0302200), the Anhui Initiative in Quantum Information Technologies (grant number AHY050000), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (grant number WK3540000010).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Jingyang Zhou, Jia Su.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CAS Key Laboratory of Microscale Magnetic Resonance and School of Physical Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China

    Jingyang Zhou, Jia Su, Junyu Guan, Yichen Yang, Wentao Ji, Mengqi Wang, Fazhan Shi, Kangwei Xia, Ya Wang & Jiangfeng Du

  2. Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Scientific Instrument Development and Application, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China

    Jingyang Zhou, Jia Su, Junyu Guan, Yichen Yang, Wentao Ji, Mengqi Wang, Fazhan Shi, Kangwei Xia, Ya Wang & Jiangfeng Du

  3. Hefei National Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China

    Fazhan Shi, Kangwei Xia, Ya Wang & Jiangfeng Du

  4. Institute of Quantum Sensing and School of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

    Jiangfeng Du

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Contributions

J.D., Y.W. and K.X. supervised the project. Y.W. and K.X. conceived the idea. Y.W., K.X. and J.Z. designed the experiment. J.Z. performed the data-writing experiments. J.Z., J.S., J.G., Y.Y. and K.X. performed the data-reading experiments. J.Z. and W.J. analysed the data. M.W. prepared the sample. Y.W., K.X., J.Z., W.J., J.S., F.S. and J.D. wrote the paper. All authors discussed the results and commented on the paper.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Kangwei Xia, Ya Wang or Jiangfeng Du.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Photonics thanks Carlos A. Rios Ocampo, Ye Zhou and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–12 and Table 1.

Supplementary Video 1

Data restored from a diamond storage medium of The Horse in Motion (the first film in the world; Eadweard Muybridge, 1887).

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Zhou, J., Su, J., Guan, J. et al. Terabit-scale high-fidelity diamond data storage. Nat. Photon. 18, 1327–1334 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-024-01573-1

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