Quantum holographic storage

Quantum holographic storage: it works!

http://blogs.zdnet.com/storage/?p=383&tag=nl.e589

Researchers at Stanford University have demonstrated quantum holographic storage, shattering long-held assumptions about the information limits of matter. Moving into the sub-atomic realm, they permanently stored 35 bits in the quantum space surrounding a single electron.

Moreover, the technique allows holograms to be “stacked” in 3 dimensions. They demonstrated 2 35-bit storage elements in the same space. Encoding data using mere atoms would be less than half as space efficient.

Quantum holography
The researchers (Christopher R. Moon, Laila S. Mattos, Brian K. Foster, Gabriel Zeltzer and Hari C. Manoharan) an interdisciplinary team from the departments of Physics, Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics at Stanford, used a gas of 2D surface state electrons held on the face of a copper crystal. Using atomic manipulation the team place individual electrons in closed quantum corrals - a common research tool.

The tricky part was encoding a specific pattern around the electrons. Using simulated annealing, they controlled the amplitude and phase of the electrons to encode the bits.

Since the writing “surface” is a gas, the team was then able to encode holograms in the same space by embedding them volumetrically in 3D.

The Storage Bits take
This is far frontiers research - not something you’ll see in a commercial product in 5 years or even 25 years. But by demonstrating that quantum holography can store massive amounts of data in a very small space, the scientists have pushed out our conception of how much data mankind may eventually be able to process and store.

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Very interesting indeed. At this rate, may be 25 years?