The world's smallest QR code.

A research team in Austria has successfully created a QR code smaller than a bacterium. They also broke a Guinness World Record, opening up a new direction for ceramic storage that requires no electricity and can last for thousands of years.

The research team successfully created the world's smallest QR code. Photo: Vienna University of Technology .

A research team from the Vienna University of Technology, in collaboration with data storage company Cerabyte, has developed a new solution to the problem of short storage device lifespans. They have successfully developed a QR code with an area of ​​only 1,977 square micrometers, with each pixel measuring 49 nm.

At this size, the QR code is smaller than most bacteria and can only be read with an electron microscope. The research team has officially broken the Guinness World Record.

The key to this technology lies in the use of ultra-durable ceramic materials. According to the research team's experimental calculations, even without a continuous power source, it can store more than 2 TB of data in an area the size of an A4 sheet of paper.

Traditional magnetic or electronic data can only be stored effectively for a few years. Over time, their performance tends to degrade or even fail, requiring continuous power supply, cooling, and periodic data transfer to new systems.

The world's smallest certified QR code. Photo: Vienna University of Technology.

Conversely, this technology shows great potential in long-term storage. Information encoded into ceramic materials can be preserved for hundreds, even thousands of years, with low energy consumption and high stability.

The creation of microscopic QR codes is linked to their intricate structure. Currently, with technological advancements, scientists can manufacture them on a micrometer scale, even using individual atoms to create the pattern.

However, that doesn't mean they can create stable and readable QR codes. The major problem lies in the diffuse nature of individual atoms. They can easily move to different locations or fill gaps, leading to the risk of losing stored data.

"We use special technology to create tiny, stable QR codes that can be read repeatedly," said Professor Paul Mayrhofer of the Institute of Materials Science and Technology at the Vienna University of Technology.

They used a focused ion beam to etch the QR code onto a thin layer of ceramic. Each pixel is only 49 nm in size, about 10 times smaller than the wavelength of visible light. Therefore, the QR code can only be read stably and reliably using an electron microscope.

The storage capacity of this method is also noteworthy. Experimental calculations show that an area the size of an A4 sheet of paper can hold more than 2 TB of data. Unlike traditional storage systems, these ceramic "data carriers" exhibit very high long-term stability under test conditions.

More importantly, ceramic storage technology can preserve information without requiring continuous power supply, thereby significantly reducing energy consumption and the carbon footprint of data storage. According to the published results, the new QR code is only 37% the size of the previous world record. In the next phase of research, the team plans to continue exploring the possibility of storing QR codes on other materials.

They expect to improve data capture speed while scaling the production process to a level suitable for industrial applications, laying the groundwork for widespread deployment. Additionally, the researchers want to investigate whether it can be applied to more complex data structures in ceramic materials.

Scientists have long been searching for new storage technologies. In February of this year, Microsoft developed a glass chip using a borosilicate glass sheet just 2 mm thick that can store up to 4.8 TB of data, potentially preserving data for tens of thousands of years.

Source: https://znews.vn/ma-qr-nho-nhat-the-gioi-post1639938.html