New technique for photonic data storage

Rather than the electronic storage used for today’s computers, the researchers from Germany and the UK say the new method will enable extremely fast high bandwidth transfer of data using light. What’s more, the memory storage can be located directly on the processing chip, further speeding up the computing process.

Using phase change materials that alter their optical properties depending on the arrangement of their atoms, the team has been able to create what they claim is the first permanent, all-optical on-chip memory. Using very fast light pulses to switch the material between crystalline (regular) and amorphous (irregular) states, many bits can be stored in a single integrated nanoscale optical phase-change cell. The research is published in scientific journal Nature Photonics.

“With our prototype we have, for the first time, a nanoscale integrated optical memory that could open up the route towards ultra-fast data processing and storage,” said professor David Wright from the University of Exeter’s engineering department.