New Low-Cost Rewritable Polymer: Sustainable Leap in Data Storage Technology

2025_05

Flinders University researchers have discovered an inexpensive sulfur-based polymer that can be rapidly modified with low-power lasers – providing a new surface for erasable information storage.

Exponential growth in demand of digital information storage and limitations of traditional data storage devices such as durability, performance, security, and environmental impact are driving innovations in data storage technologies.

One promising emerging data storage solution is physically encoding information in polymetric materials that can be modified by lasers. Many polymer films can be modified by direct laser lithography and laser surface ablation, however, these techniques usually require high power and high energy consumption, leading to higher costs to create modifications in these polymers. The challenge is to find a polymer film that is both writable with low-power systems and erasable.

A team of researchers at Flinders University, led by Prof Justin Chalker, have met and overcome this challenge with their development of a low-cost, sulfur-based polymer that is unusually sensitive to laser light at room temperature. Further research into the polymer’s potential was spearheaded by PhD candidate Abigail Mann, following the discovery of its light sensitivity made by AFM expert, and Abigail’s supervisor, Dr. Chris Gibson (now Director of Adelaide Microscopy).

With the support of ANFF-SA Flinders spectroscopist Dr Jason Gascooke, the Flinders team analysed how laser modifies the polymer and how to control the type and size of the modification. Ms Mann showed that the modifications were rapid, with exposure times on the millisecond to second timescales. Controlling the power, wavelength, beam diameter and writing speed enabled the installation of spikes, raised dots, pits, channels and holes on the polymer surface. The outcome is a new technology for writing precise patterns on polymeric materials which can be subsequently erased; illustrated below by a series of raised dots encoding the micro-scale Braille text ‘secret message’ on the polymer surface which was erased after heating.

Ms Mann and the team also explored other ways to use this polymer for rewritable data storage. Using a nanoscale AFM tip to make tiny indents into the polymer, they were able to have a higher density of information, not only in 2D but in 3D, by precisely controlling the depth of the indents. These too can be erased by heat to provide nanoscale, rewritable data storage. The discovery offers a potential sustainable, secure and flexible solution to meet future data storage needs.

Ms Mann said “I have greatly appreciated the ongoing support for my research by the ANFF South Australian team. This work was supported and enhanced through the use of ANFF-SA facilities and expertise from staff such as Jason Gascooke, Mark Cherrill and Billy Michalatos.“

ANFF-SA facilities utilised included “a combination of the Horiba Raman Microscope and Dektak Stylus profilometry for fabrication and analysis of microstructures on the surface of the material and chemical analysis of the material. At UniSA ANFF, the Optical Profilometer was employed for microstructure characterisation,” Ms Mann elborated.

The importance of access to the equipment was echoed by Dr Gascooke “We are very fortunate that the Federal and State Governments have provided the tools required to perform this work through the national facilities of Microscopy Australia and the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF) as well as Flinders Microscopy and Microanalysis.”

ANFF-SA is a world-class micro and nanofabrication facility providing open access to cutting-edge equipment housed in state-of-the-art facilities with support from world-leading experts.

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