3 Terabyte DVDs

Apparently this new laser technology developed by Harvard University engineers could offer optical storage in the terabytes range.

It's called a plasmonic laser antenna, made from a metallic nanostructure known as an optical antenna which is integrated onto the facet of a commercial semiconductor laser.

Ken Crozier, a leader of the research, says "the optical antenna collects light from the laser and concentrates it to an intense spot measuring tens of nanometers, or about one-thousandth the width of a human hair."

The wavelengths used are far smaller than the wavelengths of Wi-Fi. Currently semiconductor lasers have the greatest commercial penetration of all laster, but this new invention extends the capability to the nanoscale and down to dimensions much smaller than a wavelength, which means it can be perfect for use in near-field optical microscopes, spatially resolved chemical imaging and spectroscopy.

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