Single-Pulse Laser-Induced Ag Nanoclustering in Silver-Doped Glass for High-Density 3D-Rewritable Optical Data Storage

Optical data writing and rewriting with a 10.8 GB/cm3 capacity based on the formation of luminescent silver nanoclusters inside silver-doped sodium aluminoborate glass by ultrafast laser pulses are demonstrated. Even a single laser pulse with an energy of only 60 nJ enables writing a submicron-sized domain yielding a well-detectable photoluminescence signal due to laser-induced silver nanoclustering. We showed the possibility of reducing the distance between luminescent domains to 0.6 μm, which does not affect the reliable readout and multilayer capabilities of optical data storage. The investigation of the thermal stability of laser-written domains showed that they could survive at temperatures up to the glass transition point. Thermal annealing of glass with the recorded data has been shown to erase the information together with the laser-written domains. The possibility of subsequent rewriting of new data is also confirmed. Single-pulse laser-induced nanoclustering paves the way to fast and ultradense 3D data writing in glass media for robust long-lasting rewritable data storage based on luminescent nanomaterials.