AT&T Co’s Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey has been demonstrating a new magneto-optic data storage technique that it says enables densities of up to 45,000m bits per square inch, a 100-fold increase over the best commercially-available magneto-optical disks and 300 times better than the best current magnetic disk drives. The technique uses near-field scanning optical microscopy developed at Bell Labs, and can write and read bits with dimensions down to 60 nanometres. It uses a laser to read and write data, but rather than use a lens to focus the beam on the recording material, the light is sent into a probe made from Aluminium-coated optical fibre. The recording material is made of thin multi-layered films of Platinum and Cobalt. No word on when it might be commercially available.
