Property-driven analysis of glasses for data storage via femtosecond laser writing

The growing demand for high-density, long-term data storage has intensified interest in three-dimensional optical storage based on laser-written structures in glass. We evaluate a diverse set of commercial glasses to determine how intrinsic material properties influence the formation of multibit phase voxels. By analyzing voxel quality and write efficiency, we develop a materials-screening framework that links storage performance to measurable glass properties. Thermal diffusivity emerges as the property most strongly correlated with quality ( r =0.78 ). The resulting performance landscape identifies a Pareto front in which Schott K10 exhibits the highest write efficiency ( 0.115bitnJ −1 voxel −1 ), while Borofloat 33 provides the highest quality ( 1.76bitvoxel −1 ). Overall, this work demonstrates a generalizable methodology for selecting glasses for advanced laser-processing applications, highlighting thermal diffusivity as a key factor for achieving precise photonic structuring.