Phys.org October 4, 2021 The multipart architecture of current DNA-based recording techniques renders them inherently slow and incapable of recording fluctuating signals with subhour frequencies. To address this limitation, a team of researchers in the US (Northwestern University, Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University, MIT, University of Pennsylvania) developed a simplified system employing a single enzyme, terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT), to transduce environmental signals into DNA. TdT adds nucleotides to the 3′-ends of single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) in a template-independent manner, selecting bases according to inherent preferences and environmental conditions. By characterizing TdT nucleotide selectivity under different conditions, they showed that TdT […]
Category Archives: Data storage
One material with two functions could lead to faster memory
Science Daily August 23, 2021 Previous versions of light-emitting memories required the integration of two separate devices with differing materials, complicating fabrication. Using just one perovskite layer between contacts an international team of researchers (Taiwan, Japan) fabricated a device that works both as a RRAM and a light-emitting electrochemical cell. By taking advantage of the fast, electrically switchable ionic motion that enables this dual functionality in a single layer of perovskite they connected two devices together and developed an all-inorganic perovskite light-emitting memory. They used perovskite quantum dots of two different sizes for the two devices in the light-emitting memory […]
On the road to faster and more efficient data storage
Phys.org August 18, 2021 Antiferromagnet is a promising candidate for developing the next generation of information technology. An international team of researchers (Germany, Sweden, Japan, Italy) showed that domain walls play an active role in the dynamic properties of the antiferromagnet nickel oxide. The experiments revealed that magnetic waves with different frequencies could be induced, amplified, and even coupled with each other across different domains—but only in the presence of domain walls. The ability highlights the potential to actively control the propagation of magnetic waves in time and space as well as energy transfer among individual waves at the femtosecond […]
The world’s thinnest technology—only two atoms thick
Phys.org June 30, 2021 An international team of researchers (Israel, Japan) reports a stable ferroelectric order emerging at the interface between two naturally grown flakes of hexagonal boron nitride, which were stacked together in a metastable non-centrosymmetric parallel orientation. They observed alternating domains of inverted normal polarization, caused by a lateral shift of one lattice site between the domains. Reversible polarization switching coupled to lateral sliding was achieved by scanning a biased tip above the surface. Their calculations trace the origin of the phenomenon to a subtle interplay between charge redistribution and ionic displacement and provide intuitive insights to explore […]
Ultra-high-density hard drives made with graphene ‘overcoats’ store ten times more data
Nanowerk June 7, 2021 Currently, carbon-based overcoats (COCs), layers used to protect platters from mechanical damages and corrosion, occupy a significant part of this spacing. An international team of researchers (India, Singapore, UK, USA – Argonne National Laboratory, University of Illinois, Switzerland) replaced commercial COCs with one to four layers of graphene which fulfills all the ideal properties of an HDD overcoat in terms of corrosion protection, low friction, wear resistance, hardness, lubricant compatibility, and surface smoothness. They transferred graphene onto hard disks made of iron-platinum as the magnetic recording layer, and tested Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) that enables an […]
Translation software enables efficient DNA data storage
Nanowerk April 2, 2021 In support of the IARPA Molecular Information Storage (MIST) program researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory have developed a software called the Adaptive DNA Storage Codec (ADS Codex), that translates data files from what a computer understands into what biology understands. The short-term goal of MIST is to write 1 terabyte—a trillion bytes—and read 10 terabytes within 24 hours for $1,000. ADS Codex addresses two big obstacles to creating DNA data files: Figured out new strategies for error correction as the error rates while writing to molecular storage; Added additional information called error detection codes […]
Concept for a new storage medium
EurekAlert February 22, 2021 The control and understanding of antiferromagnetic domain walls are key ingredients for advancing antiferromagnetic spintronic technologies. However, studies of the intrinsic mechanics of individual antiferromagnetic domain walls are difficult because they require sufficiently pure materials and suitable experimental approaches to address domain walls on the nanoscale. An international team of researchers (Switzerland, Germany, Ukraine) nucleated isolated 180° domain walls in a single crystal of Cr2O3, a prototypical collinear magnetoelectric antiferromagnet. They studied their interaction with topographic features fabricated on the sample. They demonstrated domain wall manipulation through the resulting engineered energy landscape and showed that the […]
Storing information with light
Phys.org January 20, 2021 In the quest for energy efficient and fast memory elements, optically controlled ferroelectric memories are promising candidates. By taking advantage of the imprint electric field existing in the nanometric BaTiO3 films and their photovoltaic response at visible light, researchers in Spain have shown that the polarization of suitably written domains can be reversed under illumination. They used this effect to trigger and measure the associate change of resistance in tunnel devices. They showed that engineering the device structure by inserting an auxiliary dielectric layer, the electroresistance increases by a factor near 2 × 103%, and a robust electric […]
Using electricity to increase the amount of data that can be stored by DNA
Phys.org January 12, 2021 Researchers at Columbia University have developed a new electrogenetic framework for direct storage of digital data in living cells. Using an engineered redox-responsive CRISPR adaptation system, they encoded binary data in 3-bit units into CRISPR arrays of bacterial cells by electrical stimulation. They demonstrated multiplex data encoding into barcoded cell populations to yield meaningful information storage and capacity up to 72 bits, which can be maintained over many generations in natural open environments. Their work establishes a direct digital-to-biological data storage framework and advances the capacity for information exchange between silicon- and carbon-based entities…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Bacterial nanopores open the future of data storage
Nanowerk December 14, 2020 The recent development of polymers that can store information at the molecular level has opened new opportunities for ultrahigh density data storage, long-term archival, anticounterfeiting systems, and molecular cryptography. However, synthetic informational polymers are so far only deciphered by tandem mass spectrometry. In comparison, nanopore technology can be faster, cheaper, nondestructive and provide detection at the single-molecule level; moreover, it can be massively parallelized and miniaturized in portable devices. An international team of researchers (Switzerland, France, Brazil) has demonstrated the ability of engineered aerolysin nanopores to accurately read, with single-bit resolution, the digital information encoded in […]