Developed with data-storage firm Cerabyte, the QR code measures 1.98 square micrometers and was engraved onto a ceramic surface using beams of charged particles.

Each pixel is just 49 nanometers wide, smaller than a bacterium, earning recognition from Guinness World Records. The code links to the university’s website but cannot be seen with visible light and must be read using an electron microscope.

To improve long-term stability, the team used a thin film of chromium nitride, a ceramic material can preserve data for hundreds of years, far longer than current magnetic and electronic storage devices, according to The Independent.

Magnetic storage devices such as hard drives and solid-state drives typically last around a decade, while optical media like CDs and DVDs may last up to 30 years, raising concerns about data loss.

A person scans a qr code on a smartphone. Photo from Unsplash

"We live in the information age, yet we store our knowledge in media that are astonishingly short-lived," Alexander Kirnbauer, a senior scientist at Vienna University of Technology, said in a statement.

"With ceramic storage media, we are pursuing a similar approach to that of ancient cultures, whose inscriptions we can still read today. We write information into stable, inert materials that can withstand the passage of time and remain fully accessible to future generations."

The researchers also noted that ceramic storage does not require electricity or cooling, unlike data centers that consume large amounts of energy to power servers and prevent overheating, Live Science reported.

The approach could enable extremely high storage density. If scaled, more than two terabytes of data could fit within an area the size of a single A4 sheet of paper, exceeding the capacity of most consumer laptops.

The team said it will explore whether the engraving technique can be applied to other data storage methods in future research.