Data storage has reached great heights in the past two decades. However, magnetic hard drive developers have almost reached the physical limit to where they can cram up data. Magnetic hard drives store information by inscribing zeros and ones as magnetic dots on a continuous metal surface. The closer these dots are positioned from one another, the more information can be crammed inside. However, developers barely have any room for improvements as the maximum density of dots has almost been reached. Any closer positioning would cause the dots to become unstable from their neighbors’ magnetic field.

Researchers at University of Texas at Austin used a novel technique that makes use of self-assembling polymers to create the smallest magnetic dots in the world. Their results show that hard disk storage can be increased by a factor of five. If each individual dot can be isolated from another, it will be possible to bypass the magnetic field issue and increase the dot density, and in turn storage. This is where the scientists worked their magic after they used the directed self-assembly (DSA) – a method pioneered by University of Wisconsin and MIT. Previous attempts have rendered dot density just enough to double the storage density of disk drives. But the new research has done much better. They have synthesized block copolymers that self-assemble into the smallest dots in the world - 9 nanometers or just about the size of protein. These were attached to a guided surface which had dots and lines etched on it. While the polymers were self-assembling into position, a special top coat that goes over the block copolymers was introduced. This top coat allows the polymers to achieve the right orientation relative to the plane of the surface simply by heating. Now the team is working together with HGST to see how this process can be implemented in the current manufacturing processes. Their findings were reported in Sciencemag.org.