Nanotechnology advances and applications in information storage

A brief review of some applications of nanotechnology to information storage is given with the focus on self-assembled nanoporous alumina templates for patterned media.Ordered nanoporous alumina templates were fabricated by self-assembly technology. A two-step anodization process was also carried out to obtain templates with pores perpendicular to the substrate without removing the aluminum and barrier layer. Polycrystalline structure was observed with a grain size of about 2 μm in which the pores were almost perfect hexagonally ordered. The pore arrays exhibit different orientation along the boundaries of neighboring grains. Nanopatterning implemented by electron-beam lithography demonstrates the ability to write pores forming concentric circles with pore diameter as small as 50 nm.