Permanent Data Storage Achieved with Light

[Guest_Jim_*]

For the first time, researchers have built all-optical permanent on-chip memory. While light is used for efficiently and quickly transmitting data between computers, it is still electrical signals used within computers. By creating this optical memory device, the researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and the universities of Münster, Oxford, and Exeter make it more possible to bring optics into computers.

This new memory utilizes phase change materials that can have their optical properties manipulated by strong light pulses. In this case the material used was Ge₂Sb₂Te₅ (GST) because its phase changes can be triggered by ultrashort light pulses, allowing the memory to operate at high speed. It is speed that is critical here, because while optical signals will travel faster than electrical ones, the need to convert between them for processing, storage, and transmission limits any the benefits of using light within a computer. By allowing the optical signals to be directly stored in a memory device, without conversion, one of these limitations is lifted, opening up the potential for faster and more efficient computers.

In addition to these benefits, the memory device can also store data more efficiently than traditional electronic memories, because its elements can exist in more states than just 0 or 1. This new memory can also store the data for decades without power.

Source: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

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