Implications of 3 Terabyte Compact Discs

The article I have chosen is titled "How To Burn A 3 Terabyte CD" by Kate Greene. The article focuses on the exponentially advancing storage capacities of next-generation's writable media. Currently, the highest storage capacity for optical discs has peaked at 50 gigabytes, with Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs. The article implies that a research team at Harvard is very close - if not already there - to creating a way to store up to 3 Terabytes (3TB - 3,000 Gigabytes; 3,000,000 Megabytes) of data onto one disc.

The common method of burning data to Compact Discs (CDs), Digital Video Discs (DVDs), HD-DVDs (High-Definition DVDs) and Blu-Ray DVDs (another form of high-definition) involves using a small wavelength of laser-light to 'burn' the data onto a disc. This rudimentary technique is limited because the "small" laser-light is somewhat thick (400-800 nanometers wide) and cannot burn more than 50 gigabytes of data onto one disc. The reason this research team has gone farther than anyone else who has tried is because they discovered and implemented a very unique method of 'burning' data to an optical disc via a laser. Their method is the use of a nano-antenna that is built onto an ordinary laser, which allows the laser to focus to a much smaller size onto the optical disc; approximately 40 nanometers (about 10 times smaller!).

The nano-antenna is basically two gold-coated "nano-rods" separated from each other by 30 nanometers. The nano-rods act as a magnifying glass, which concentrates the laser-light energy into an area on the disc roughly 30-40 nanometers wide. The nano-antenna idea is not new, but this is the first study in which it has been incorporated with a laser specifically.

The implications of this technology would mean that compact discs could hold 3 terabytes of data: the equivalent of 300 feature-length DVD movies on one disc. This is a huge breakthrough in disc data storage. While the technology is a long way from being made public, the Harvard scientists are making good progress in this direction.