The "5-dimensional" descriptor is because, unlike marking only on the surface of a 2D piece of paper or magnetic tape, this method of encoding uses two optical dimensions and three spatial co-ordinates to write throughout the material, which suggested the name '5D data crystal'. No exotichigher dimensional properties are involved. The size, orientation and three-dimensional position of the nanostructures comprise the so-called five dimensions.[3]
The concept is to store data optically in non-photosensitive transparent materials such asfused quartz, which has high chemical stability. Recording data using afemtosecond-laser was first proposed and demonstrated in 1996.[2][14][15] The storage medium consists of fused quartz, where thespatial dimensions, intensity,polarization, and wavelength are used to modulate data. By introducinggold orsilver nanoparticles embedded in the material, theirplasmonic properties can be exploited.[2]
The 5-dimensional discs [have] tiny patterns printed on 3 layers within the discs. Depending on the angle they are viewed from, these patterns can look completely different. This may sound like science fiction, but it's basically a really fancy optical illusion. In this case, the 5 dimensions inside of the discs are the size and orientation in relation to the 3-dimensional position of the nanostructures. The concept of being 5-dimensional means that one disc has several different images depending on the angle that one views it from, and the magnification of the microscope used to view it. Basically, each disc has multiple layers of micro and macro level images.[16]
Recorded data can be read with a combination of anoptical microscope and a polarizer.[17]
The technique was first demonstrated in 2009 by researchers at theSwinburne University of Technology[18] and in 2010 by Kazuyuki Hirao's laboratory at the Kyoto University,[19] and developed further by Peter Kazansky's research group at the Optoelectronics Research Centre,University of Southampton.[20][21][22][23] Discs recorded from that time have been tested for 3,100 hours at 100°C and shown to still work "perfectly" ten years later.[24]
In July 2025Good Old Games, in collaboration with SPhotonix, encodedHeroes of Might and Magic III on the 5D crystal. It became the first video game ever preserved with this technology.[27]
^Kazansky, Peter; Cerkauskaite, Ausra; Drevinskas, Rokas (June 2016)."Optical memory enters 5D realm".Physics World. Archived fromthe original on 22 March 2019. Retrieved5 February 2018.
