Researchers at Microsoft have developed a laser-based technology to store data in glass, potentially revolutionizing data centres with durable, sustainable archives. The method encodes information into nanostructures within glass layers, offering stability for over 10,000 years under extreme conditions. This advancement builds on earlier work and aims for scalable, robotic data libraries.
In a recent demonstration, Microsoft’s Project Silica team, led by Richard Black, has created an automated system for etching data into glass using femtosecond lasers. These lasers emit pulses lasting quadrillionths of a second to form tiny structures in thin glass layers, incorporating error-correcting bits to minimize reading and writing issues. The stored data is retrieved via a microscope and camera setup, with images processed by a neural network algorithm to reconstruct the original bits.
The technology stored 4.8 terabytes in a 120-millimetre-wide by 2-millimetre-thick glass square, comparable to the storage of about 37 iPhones but occupying just a third of one device's volume. Accelerated ageing tests, including heating in a furnace, indicate the data remains readable for more than 10,000 years at 290°C and even longer at ambient temperatures. The team also experimented with cheaper borosilicate glass, though it supports less complex data.
Black highlighted the material's advantages: “Glass can withstand extreme temperatures, humidity, particulates and electromagnetic fields. On top of that, glass has a great lifespan and doesn’t require replacing every couple of years. That makes it a more sustainable medium as well. It requires very little energy to make and it’s easy to recycle when we’re done with it.”
This builds on 2014 research by Peter Kazansky at the University of Southampton, who encoded hundreds of terabytes into glass nanostructures capable of lasting longer than the universe's age. Kazansky praised the new work for providing an end-to-end system scalable to data centre levels. Other efforts include SPhotonix, co-founded by Kazansky, which stored the human genome in glass, and Cerabyte, using ceramic and glass layers.
Potential uses focus on long-term preservation, such as national libraries, scientific repositories, and cultural records. Microsoft is collaborating with Warner Bros. and the Global Music Vault to archive cloud-based data indefinitely. The technology even appeared in the film Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, where Kazansky noted it as a rare case of Hollywood sci-fi aligning with peer-reviewed reality. The findings are published in Nature (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-10042-w).
