A permanent optical storage medium exhibiting ultrahigh contrast, superior stability, and a broad working wavelength regime.

In this paper we demonstrate an optical storage medium having advantages of ultrahigh contrast, superior stability, and broadband working wavelengths. Combining a single shot of deep-ultraviolet (UV) laser illumination with a Au particle-assisted etching process, we formed broadband antireflective, one-dimensional silicon nanowire arrays (SiNWs) with selectively at specific positions. Optical measurements and three-dimensional finite-difference time domain (3D-FDTD) simulations revealed ultrahigh reflection contrast between the Au and the SiNWs for both far- and near-field regimes. Relative to typical organic-based storage media, Au films and SiNWs are more stable, both chemically and thermally; therefore, we suspect that this new storage medium would exhibit high stability toward moisture, sunshine, and elevated temperatures.