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takyon writes:

Scientists have developed an optical disc technology that they say can store at least 10 terabytes per disc with a lifetime of over 600-650 years:

"While optical technology can expand capacity, the most advanced optical discs developed so far have only 50-year lifespans," explained lead investigator Min Gu, a professor at RMIT and senior author of an open-access paper published in Nature Communications. "Our technique can create an optical disc with the largest capacity of any optical technology developed to date and our tests have shown it will last over half a millennium and is suitable for mass production of optical discs."

[...] The new nano-optical long-data memory technology is based on a novel gold nanoplasmonic hybrid glass matrix, unlike the materials used in current optical discs. The technique relies on a sol-gel process, which uses chemical precursors to produce ceramics and glass with higher purity and homogeneity than conventional processes. Glass is a highly durable material that can last up to 1000 years and can be used to hold data, but has limited native storage capacity because of its inflexibility. So the team combined glass with an organic material, halving its lifespan (to 600 years) but radically increasing its capacity.

Also at RMIT University.

High-capacity optical long data memory based on enhanced Young's modulus in nanoplasmonic hybrid glass composites (open, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-03589-y) (DX)

Original Submission