Even we have already says our good-old-goodbye to floppy disk and we think we will miss it –that much, well, that so after a team of Japanese researchers developed a material made of titanium oxide that can be used to manufacture a low-price disc that will able to store a whooping 25-terabytes of data.
The normal idea for retrieving/storing data on the disc is by use of light (Laser) with specific colors. Reportedly, this new crystal form of titanium oxide is capable of switching back and forth between metal and semiconductor states when exposed to light.
“A material that changes color with light can be used in storage devices, as colors reflect light differently to contain different information. [So this is] promising as a material for a next-generation optical storage device,” Shin-ichi Ohkoshi, chemistry professor at the University of Tokyo, told AFP.
“[And] Titanium oxide’s market price is about one-hundredth of the rare element – germanium-antimony-tellurium – that is currently used in rewritable Blu-ray discs and DVDs. [So], you don’t have to worry about procuring rare metals. Titanium oxide is cheap and safe, already being used in many products ranging from face powder to white paint.”
Meanwhile, we can expect to see this disc in production with Ohkoshi adding that he was planning to kick off talks with private-sector companies over potential “commercialization” of the material.
