GE has announced a breakthrough in holographic storage, which the company believes will bring it much closer to the day when it can store up to 500GB on a single optical disc. Like other efforts that we’ve covered here on Ars over the years, GE has been working for some time on an optical storage medium that uses holograms to store data in three dimensions; this is in contrast to conventional optical discs, which use layers of pitted metal to encode 2D data patterns that can be read by bouncing a laser off of them.
GE’s scientists had reached a point where they were able to use the same types of low-wattage lasers found in conventional DVD and Blu-ray players to read and write holographic data patterns in clear plastic discs, but these holograms didn’t reflect enough light to be easily read. The most recent breakthrough came with the use of a new material that’s reflective enough to make the holograms readable. Because these holograms reflect laser light much better, the patterns can be scaled down in size to enable storage densities on the order of 500GB.
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