Researchers at the University of Chicago and Argonne National Lab have developed a new type of optical memory that stores data by transferring light from rare-earth element atoms embedded in a solid material to nearby quantum defects. They published their study in Physical Review Research.
Study: https://journals.aps.org/prresearch/pdf/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.6.033170
It kinda sounds elaborate? Like, how practical is that, especially in regards to being a standard?