Overview
- The QR code spans about 1.977–1.98 µm² with 49 nm pixels that are unreadable by optical microscopes and require electron-microscope imaging.
- Researchers milled the pattern into a thin chromium nitride ceramic using focused ion beams in collaboration with industry partner Cerabyte.
- The result was witnessed during writing and readout, independently size-verified with calibrated SEM at the University of Vienna, and certified by Guinness.
- The code is roughly one third the area of the prior record and was repeatedly decoded, demonstrating stability on a medium designed to endure heat, radiation, corrosion, and mechanical stress.
- The team is pursuing faster writing, alternative materials, scalable manufacturing, and multilayer data structures, with preliminary density estimates near 290 TB for a 100×100×20 mm cartridge.