ORC featured on BBC4 science documentary with Institute of Making founder, Zoe Laughlin

The recent BBC4 science documentary, ‘The Secret Story of Stuff’, presented by Institute of Making founder Zoe Laughlin, featured the work of scientists in the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at the University of Southampton.

Most specifically, our pioneering research into new hollow core fibres, enabling faster-than-ever-before data communication, and our 5D data storage memory crystals, which have the potential to store up to 360 terabytes of data capacity and last trillions of years.

Research around new hollow core fibres is being undertaken as part of our EPSRC-funded Airguide Photonics programme and ERC-funded LightPipe project. Professor Francesco Poletti is interviewed, explaining the benefits of our new hollow core fibres for the future of the internet and mobile communications that we all now take for granted.

Professor Sir David Payne, Director of the Optoelectronics Research Centre, also appears talking about our ground-breaking work to address the escalating demand for data storage: “We’ve created a global internet that’s putting out petabytes of data every single day. Using the same glass that we’re using for optical fibre for the internet, we discovered that we can also use it to store data. We can actually write into that glass using a laser. So we can use that same beautiful silica glass to store a huge amount of data.”

Research on 5D data storage is being led by the ORC’s Professor Peter Kazanksy, who has developed a method of writing thousands of layers of data in a single monolithic glass disc using a precise femtosecond laser.

The programme also featured the ORC’s outreach team demonstrating internal reflection of a laser beam inside a channel. Dr Paul Gow and ORC PhD student Senta Scholl showed presenter Zoe Laughlin how light can bend around a curve.

‘Secret Story of Stuff: Materials of the Modern Age’ is available to view on iPlayer until 30 November 2018. The ORC footage starts at 47:21 minutes.