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Topic 3: The World's Smallest QR Codes Are Convincing

TU Wien also made it into the Guinness Book of Records! Together with its partner company Cerabyte. The jury was impressed by the smallest QR codes ever produced and read. One involuntarily wonders how small a still readable QR code can actually be. Well, so small that it can only be recognized with an electron microscope! The QR code has an area of just 1.98 square micrometers—that's smaller than the size of most bacteria.

The record was also verified and then officially entered into the Guinness Book of Records. The technology has great potential for the long-term storage of data. This is because conventional magnetic or electrical data storage devices often only have a lifespan of a few years before the information is lost, so to speak. However, if information is inscribed bit by bit in ceramic materials, the storage capacity increases to centuries or even millennia.

Stable Codes Are Only Available in Suitable Materials

"The structure we are creating here is so fine that you can't even see it with a light microscope," says Prof. Paul Mayrhofer from the Institute of Materials Science and Technology at TU Wien. But that's not the really remarkable thing about it, because structures in the micrometer range are nothing unusual today. It is even possible to produce patterns from individual atoms today. However, according to Mayrhofer, this does not produce a stable or even readable code. The choice of the right material is crucial for this. Research is therefore being carried out into ceramic thin films, such as those required for coating high-performance cutting tools. For these products, it is important that the materials remain stable and durable even under the extreme conditions of metalworking. "And that is precisely what makes these materials ideal for data storage," note Erwin Peck and Balint Hajas, who were primarily responsible for the Guinness Book record being set.

Focused Ion Beams Chisel Information Into Ceramics

Using focused ion beams, the team milled the QR code into a thin ceramic layer. The individual pixels measure just 49 nanometres—a single wavelength of visible light is around ten times longer, as they point out. The code is therefore absolutely invisible, as its details cannot be physically resolved with visible light—just as it is impossible in principle for the thick foot of an elephant to feel Braille (Braille for the blind). However, using an electron microscope, it was finally shown that the nano-QR code can indeed be read reliably. The storage capacity of this method is remarkable. It is possible to store more than two terabytes of data on the surface of an A4 page. And unlike conventional storage systems, such ceramic systems are almost indefinitely durable without requiring energy, as should not be forgotten.

As we all know, we live in the information age. But it is precisely our own era that stores its knowledge in media that are surprisingly short-lived, as the researchers point out. As mentioned, magnetic and electronic data carriers often lose information after just a few years if a constant supply of energy, cooling and regular migration are not ensured. In the end, the traces of our time fade unless they are preserved more permanently. Earlier cultures carved their knowledge in stone - and these messages lasted for thousands of years. This has also been done with the smallest QR code, so to speak.