Data and diamonds

Diamonds can be used as a way to store vast amounts of data indefinitely using atom-sized flaws ordered in 3D arrays, according to the journal Science Advances. A team of physicists from City University of New York used lasers to encode and read data on diamonds’ atomic-sized imperfections, called nitrogen vacancy centres.

These experiments suggest that diamonds could be used to encode data in the form of negatively and neutrally charged defects, which lasers can read, write, erase and rewrite, the publication said.