University of Houston engineers are developing a method to improve magnetic data storage density by producing the first nanopatterned medium recording (N-PMR) at the scale of one terabyte per square inch, with a goal of recording on individual crystallites.

Currently, magnetic storage uses 50 to 100 crystallites for a storage unit. With the new method, each crystallite would be located in a specific, lithographically defined place so that individual crystallites could be storage units. The researchers expect to have storage units only 4 nm wide within a few years.

University of Houston news release