Digital thin film non-volatile optical memory

Optical memory devices are conventionally fabricated by laser beam processing. In this paper, we report on the use of a Ga/sup +/ focused ion beam to "write" data on a SiO/sub 2/ film grown on Si. The use of FIB milling has the advantage of creating smaller data storage elements and higher data density (than current DVD devices) since the ion beam can be focused into a much smaller spot size (as small as 8 nm in diameter) than that of lasers. The FIB-written data has a sub-micron structure with multiple bit capacity per physical location and can be read by far-field optical detection. The extended lifetime of data stored on a robust material such as SiO/sub 2//Si produces a data storage option with excellent survival under harsh environments such as high temperature and radiation.