Titanium oxide can make cheap laser discs up to 25 TB

A group of chemists from Tokyo University conducted an experiment on the use of a new crystalline form of Ti ₃ O ₅ for the production of optical drives. Under the influence of a laser, this material changes shape from ferrous metal to a brown semiconductor at room temperature.

Scientists have successfully created a pit surface with a particle diameter of 5 to 20 nm. This means that theoretically you can make discs with a capacity a thousand times higher than Blu-ray. According toShin-ichi Ohkoshi, professor of chemistry at the University of Tokyo, the current market price for titanium oxide is about a hundred times lower than the GST (germanium-antimony-tellurium) alloy, which is used to produce rewritable DVDs and Blu-ray. Thus, the cost of new drives may be even lower than existing ones.

The results of the work of scientists were published May 23 in the journal Nature Chemistry.