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Optics Letters

Time- and frequency-domain hybrid optical memory: 16-kbit data storage in Eu^3+:Y_2SiO_5

Masaharu Mitsunaga, Ryuzi Yano, Naoshi Uesugi

Published Dec 1, 1991• 121 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We propose and demonstrate a novel type of frequency-selective optical memory that writes and reads the data in both the time domain and the frequency domain. Temporal 16-bit data were stored by accumulated-photon-echo bit-by-bit storage at 103 frequency addresses within the inhomogeneous line of the (7)F(0)-(5)D(0) transition of Eu(3+):Y(2)SiO(5), which yields a total memory capacity of 1.6 kbits in a single spot of 240-microm diameter. The keys to the success of this experiment are this material's long dephasing time and lack of spectral diffusion.

DOI
10.1364/ol.16.001890

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We propose and demonstrate a novel type of frequency-selective optical memory that writes and reads the data in both the time domain and the frequency domain. Temporal 16-bit data were stored by accumulated-photon-echo bit-by-bit storage at 103 frequency addresses within the inhomogeneous line of the (7)F(0)-(5)D(0) transition of Eu(3+):Y(2)SiO(5), which yields a total memory capacity of 1.6 kbits in a single spot of 240-microm diameter. The keys to the success of this experiment are this material's long dephasing time and lack of spectral diffusion.
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.
The successful storage and retrieval of 248-bit temporal optical data in Eu(3+):YAlO(3) by accumulated photon echoes is reported. Owing to the long storage time of this crystal, the input data can be written bit by bit by quickly varying the separation of two laser pulses, while the stored data are recalled simultaneously after some storage period, which extends up to a few hours. The maximum data length, previously thought to be limited by the optical dephasing time T(2), has been found to be four times shorter than T(2) and attributable to spectral diffusion.
We demonstrate the impulse-equivalent approach [Opt. Lett. 21, 833 (1996)] to time-domain storage of optical data. Using the 128-bit real Huffman-Ackroyd code as the write-read sequences, we have successfully stored a 42-micros-long stream containing 420 bits of data in a 40-MHz spectral channel in a Eu(3+):Y(2)SiO(5) crystal. The stored data were repeatedly recalled as many as eight times with high signal f idelity, showing no measurable sidelobe-induced noise. Data retrieval with the use of mismatched write-read pulses was also examined, and implications of the results for data encryption are discussed.
We report a novel technique for storing digital optical data in coherent time-domain optical memory to circumvent the problem of coherent saturation. In this technique, the carrier frequency of a data stream to be stored is slowly chirped so its power is spread over the data bandwidth for maximum data storage. In a proof-of-concept experiment, a total of 500 bits of data were stored at a rate of 20 Mbits/s in a 45-MHz-wide channel within the inhomogeneous line of the (7)F(0)-(5)D(l) transition in Eu(3+):Y(2)SiO(5). The result suggests a minimum storage density of ~1.5 Gbits/cm(3) for this transition. Issues related to the storage of frequency-chirped data, such as the optimum chirp width and the saturation owing to peak-sidelobe interference, are also discussed.
Swept-carrier time-domain optical memory [Opt. Lett. 17, 535 (1992)] has been proposed as a means of storing optical data streams in inhomogeneously broadened spectral recording materials. The process provides for full utilization of the material storage bandwidth regardless of the data rate and permits storage of data sequences with durations exceeding the material dephasing time. We report what we believe is the first experimental demonstration of this storage process. Our experiments, implemented with frequency-swept diode lasers and Tm(3+):YAG storage material, demonstrate single-event storage of 98-bit data streams whose duration is an order of magnitude longer than the material dephasing time.