Glass tile can store data for millennia

Researchers at Microsoft have created a data-storage system that can remain readable for at least 10,000 years — and probably much longer. The team used a high-energy laser to imprint deformations into a 3D chunk of borosilicate glass, the kind used in ovenware. Each deformation encodes data that can be read out using a microscope. A 12-centimetre wide, 2-millimetre-thick square of the glass can securely store nearly 5 terabytes of data, the equivalent of around 2 million printed books.

An ultrashort laser pulse creates tiny modifications to the optical properties of the glass called voxels, which encode data. A square of glass containing 301 layers of voxels had a storage capacity of 4.8 terabytes.