- Chinese researchers are working to develop molecular hard drives with high capacity
- Units use organometallic molecules to increase density and data efficiency
- A conductive atomic force microscope council Read and write molecular data
Chinese researchers are exploring the potential of organic materials to develop a new type of hard disk that could store the amount of data six times compared to current mechanical models.
Traditional hard drives store the data in binary form, depending on magnetized regions to represent those that represent the and zeros, which limits the storage capacity. Molecular hard discs exceed this by using self -assembled monocapas of organometallic complex molecules, such as RUunknownLPH, to significantly increase data density while maintaining ultra -low energy consumption, measured in only 2.94 Picowatts by bit.
A key component in the Molecular HDD operation is the tip of the conductive atomic force microscope (C-AFM), which serves as mechanical programming and reading head. The tip applies voltages located to the self -assembly monolayunknownLPH molecules. The Nanoscale Resolution of the tip allows precise control over the molecular conductance states, which allows the storage of multiple bits in an exceptionally small footprint.
Encryption at the molecular level
Another advantage of molecular hard drives is the improved security they offer. Unlike traditional units that require separate encryption mechanisms, molecular HDDs have Xor in situ encryption at the molecular level. This capacity allows secure data coding and recovery without additional hardware, reducing vulnerability to cyber threats.
The researchers demonstrated this encoding and encrypting an image of 128×128 pixels, demonstrating the ability of the system to store and recover data safely.
The investigation was published in Nature communications. The authors say that future work will focus on improving miniaturization, increasing conductance states and addressing environmental sensitivity.
Blocks and files However, it makes an interesting point. “The work life of a tip of the atomic force microscope is currently measured at 50-200 hours in intermittent tact mode (coup) versus 5-50 hours in continuous touch mode. At least and until a long-term C-FM tip can be created, this would seem to be a fatal defect in its molecular hard drive. A second point is that the device has “ultraalow energy consumption of the PW/Bit range”, but this is to read and write, do not turn the disc, which would take more power. “
