DVD plus nano-rods equals security, density: researchers

Swinburne and Taiwanese researchers have demonstrated technology that can use a single laser beam to create 3D polarization in nanomaterials.

What’s cool about this is that they demonstrate that the polarization can be used to encrypt information – as well as expanding the storage capacity of optical media like DVDs.

As is shown in the illustration at the bottom of this story, the polarization technique – in its infancy at the moment – allows different images to be encoded in one place, showing up depending on the polarization the “read” beam uses. Using polarization to encode information like this isn’t new: however, achieving 3D polarization using a single beam is, according to the researchers.