Atomic Data Storage

Researchers have been experimenting with the concept of storing data at the atomic level for decades. As early as 1959, physicist Richard Feynman suggested that atoms could be manipulated to form letters, and three decades later, scientists did just that, writing the letters “IBM” by precisely positioning 35 xenon atoms on a sheet of nickel. The problem was that, in order to keep them from vibrating off the “page,” they had to be cooled to -269 degrees Celsius (just four degrees above absolute zero).

Recently, a team of Dutch scientists made huge strides by storing an entire paragraph of data at temperatures of only -196 degrees Celsius. They accomplished it by covering a sheet of copper with a lattice of chlorine atoms, then used pairs of atoms and spaces within the lattice to create a binary code. The lattice structure provided more stability than individual atoms, and the code could be written and rewritten by sliding the atoms back and forth within the pairs.

Eight bits were used to create a byte, and a total of 1,016 atomic bytes were built. At an information density of about 78 trillion bits per square centimeter the new atomic storage has hundreds of times more capacity than current storage mediums, but read/write speed is still excruciatingly slow at 1-2 minutes per 64 bits! Regardless, it’s an impressive illustration of what’s possible with today’s technology!