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InPhase Technologies and Hitachi are jointly developing the technology, which uses laser light interference to store data in a light-sensitive crystal material.

The technique could be developed to store up to 1.6 Terabytes on each disc - more than 300 times the capacity of a conventional DVD - and offer read and write speeds of up to 120Mbits/sec.

'Unlike other technologies, that record one data bit at a time, holography allows a million bits of data to be written

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and read in parallel with a single flash of light,' Liz Murphy, of InPhase Technologies, told New Scientist. 'This enables transfer rates significantly higher than current optical storage devices.'

The high transfer speed enables the playback of broadcast-quality HDTV content, of which 26 hours can be stored on a single disc.

'We believe the capacity and data rates of holographic storage will be critical to achieving the breakthrough improvements in work flow and cost reduction that the broadcast industry is seeking,' said Nelson Diaz, InPhase's CEO.

Holographic storage works by splitting light from a single laser beam into two: the signal beam to carry the data and the reference beam. The hologram is formed where these two beams intersect causing a chemical reaction in the recording medium. By varying the reference beam angle, wavelength, or media position many different holograms can be recorded in the same volume of material.