Titanium Oxide For High-Density Optical Storage 172
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.
Slashdotted, Coral cache link (Score:5, Informative)
Titanium dioxide? (Score:5, Informative)
Most likely, TFA should have referred to Titanium dioxide, as this is also a semiconductor in crystalline state.
Something's not right (Score:3, Informative)
Titanium oxide isn't used for pigments - titanium dioxide is.
Re:Titanium dioxide? (Score:5, Informative)
"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)."
Safe... Really? (Score:2, Informative)
Really? Several articles have linked TiO2 to cancer [ccohs.ca]. Yeah, real safe.
Re:Good for archival purposes? (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."