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Spectral Hole-Burning and Related Spectroscopies: Science and Applications

Material Considerations for Time-Domain Optical Storage

Stefan Kröll, Per Tidlund

Published Jan 1, 1992• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Optical frequency-domain data storage using persistent spectral hole burning has been considered for more than ten years by now and the material parameter space required has been investigated and discussed [1,2]. An alternative approach to spectral storage, by utilizing the time-domain has been proposed by Mossberg [3]. This approach using coherent transient techniques (photon echoes) has gained increasing attention during the last years. However, to our knowledge an analysis of the required material parameter space for this approach still has not been published. In this conference paper some preliminary material considerations pertaining to time-domain storage and processing in inorganic crystals are presented.

DOI
10.1364/shbl.1992.thc2

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Spectral Hole-Burning and Related Spectroscopies: Science and Applications•Jan 1, 1992•0 citations
Optical frequency-domain data storage using persistent spectral hole burning has been considered for more than ten years by now and the material parameter space required has been investigated and discussed [1,2]. An alternative approach to spectral storage, by utilizing the time-domain has been proposed by Mossberg [3]. This approach using coherent transient techniques (photon echoes) has gained increasing attention during the last years. However, to our knowledge an analysis of the required material parameter space for this approach still has not been published. In this conference paper some preliminary material considerations pertaining to time-domain storage and processing in inorganic crystals are presented.
Persistent spectral hole-burning and photon echoes can provide insight into the dynamics of amorphous and crystalline materials on the molecular/atomic level. Part of the current interest in these methods, however, is also caused by the existence of potential applications in optical data storage and processing. At present it may be difficult to specify exactly at what applications these techniques should try to target but, based on current research efforts and results, it appears that persistent spectral hole burning is a possible candidate for high density, possibly long time, volumetric storage, while photon echoes have properties more attractive for short time storage or storage connected to processing applications.
To determine the complete set of required materials properties for a viable frequency-domain optical-storage system based on persistent spectral hole burning, we have performed analytic and computer simulations of the writing performance, signal-to-noise ratio, and number of reads that can be obtained from single-photon or monophotonic (no threshold) hole-burning mechanisms with realistic spot sizes and reading and writing times. We find that acceptable reading performance occurs only for materials with high quantum efficiencies, low absorption cross sections, and high solubilities. This work for the first time clearly defines the parameter space of single-photon materials that can be utilized in a frequency-domain optical-storage system.
Spectral hole burning and photon echoes are the techniques for frequency-selective optical memories, which have the potential to increase areal data storage density by a factor 10**7. They also have the capability to perform in-memory data processing. In this thesis, several materials and techniques for optical memories in the frequency- and time domain have been investigated. In the frequency domain, ways to increase the storage density and the working temperature were studied using photon-gated spectral hole burning materials of the metal-tetrabenzoporphyrin derivatives. A selection rule for the electron acceptors in the donor-acceptor electron transfer systems was deduced. By doping the material with two different donors a maximum inhomogeneous line width of more than 30 THz was achieved. A polarization holographic technique was established for the formation and detection of spectral holes. Our results indicate that this technique can provide a better signal-to-noise ratio than that achieved by a conventional holographic technique, in particular for samples of poor optical quality. In the time domain, magnetic field-induced and the intensity-induced dephasing processes were studied in Pr3+ doped in a YAlO3 crystal and a Y2SiO5 crystal, respectively. As a step along the route to make photon echo based optical processing possible, the amplification of photon echo signals by the use of a fiber amplifier (Pr3+-doped ZBLAN) was demonstrated. A gain of 45 was achieved. The erasure of stored data using photon echoes has also been investigated. A technique to diagnose the phase and frequency stability of a light source by the photon echo erasure process was proposed and illustrated. An approach to bit-selective data erasure, that is free from laser phase and frequency fluctuations, is also suggested. A concept for an arbitrary shape pulse generator based on photon echoes and hole-burning was experimentally and theoretically studied. Finally, a comparison between the properties and capabilities of spectral hole burning and photon echoes was made.
The photon-echo memory[1], or the time-domain optical data storage, resembles the hole-burning memory [2] in that the inhomogeneous absorption line of a material is employed as a storage medium and the information is stored in it as a frequency-dependent absorption change with the resolution determined by the homogeneous width. Having the common memory capacity N given by the inhomogeneous-to-homogeneous width ratio, both types of memories share common problems like low-temperature operation, spectral diffusion and so on. Although a storage medium is common, storage techniques are definitely different for the two memories. The photon-echo memory utilizes the temporal interference effect between a reference pulse and a data pulse and their interference pattern is stored as a population grating in the frequency domain. In this sense this is a time-domain analog of holography where the spatial interference pattern between a reference beam and a data beam is stored in a medium as a population grating in the real space. Like the spatially diffracted beam from the read beam gives the information stored in the hologram, the “temporally diffracted pulse", or the photon echo, after the read pulse can give the information stored in the inhomogeneous distribution.
Time-and-space-domain holography [1,2] by stimulated photon echoes [3] provides a means of storing temporal and spatial properties of an ultrafast-varying light signal and recalling its authentic replica at any later moment. The possibility of recording complex time shapes of light pulses, which also means time-domain optical data storage, is based on the ability of frequency-selective absorbers to store with high accuracy the temporal Fourier components of the incident light [1-3]. The time-domain frequency-selective optical storage of binary or analog data is an alternative approach to the concept of frequency-selective high-density data storage that provides a parallel ultrafast data storage and processing in the frequency domain. The shortest detail of the signal to be stored is limited by the reverse inhomogeneous bandwidth of the storing media which reaches 10-100 fs for frequency-selective materials while the duration of the signal is limited by phase relaxation time T2 (usually 10-3-10-6s).
It is acknowledged that inhomogeneous absorption bands consisting of narrow homogeneous zero-phonon lines (ZPL) can be used for the purpose of optical data storage in the frequency dimension /1/. Persistent spectral hole-burning (PSHB) /2,3/ has made it feasible to preserve the recorded frequency domain information for a practically unlimited period of time. Via PSHB the inhomogeneous distribution function of the resonance frequencies of the impurity zero-phonon lines can be altered in an almost arbitrary fashion. This, in turn, makes it possible to manipulate the absorption coefficient and correlated to it index of refraction of the optical storage media. On this basis it has been proposed to use PSHB for the shaping of laser pulses via Fourier synthesis /4/. Holographic storage of time domain optical signals in PSHB media was proposed by Mossberg /5/. In the first experiments on the PSHB time domain holography the reproduction of various temporal shapes of picosecond pulses was demonstrated in dye doped polymers cooled to liquid helium temperature /6/. Earlier Zuikov et al. observed correlation between the temporal shapes of nanosecond excitation laser pulses and photon echo signals /7/. Since that time a variety of experiments on time domain holography in different resonant media have been reported (see /8/ and references therein).