The present invention provides methods and apparatuses for writing information
to, reading information from, and erasing information on a luminescent data storage
medium comprising Al2O3. The method includes writing and
erasing of the information using photoionization via sequential two-photon absorption
and non-destructive reading the information using fluorescent detection. The apparatuses
for writing and reading the information incorporate confocal detection and spherical
aberration correction for multilayer volumetric fluorescent data storage. The methods
also allow multilevel recording and readout of information for increased storage capacity.