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"Five-dimensional" discs with a capacity 10,000 times greater than current DVDs could be on the market within 10 years, researchers reported this week.

A team from Swinburne University of Technology in Australia said that by harnessing nanoparticles and a "polarisation" dimension to existing technology, storage can be massively boosted without changing the size of a current disc.

The researchers, who have signed a deal with Samsung, said the technique has allowed them to store 1.6 TB of data on a disc with the potential to one day store up to 10 TB.

One terabyte would be enough to hold 300 feature length films or 250,000 songs.

"We were able to show how nanostructured material can be incorporated onto a disc in order to increase data capacity, without increasing the physical size of the disc," Min Gu, who worked on the research, said in a statement.

"These extra dimensions are the key to creating ultra-high capacity discs."