Challenges for ultra-high density spectral storage
Zameer U. Hasan
ABSTRACT A review of the status of ultra-high density spectral storage has been presented. Keywords: Ultra-High Density Spectral Storage, Spectral Memories, Terabits Storage, Spectral Holeburning, Optical Holeburning, Multi-layer Th infilm, Power-Gated Holeburning, Optical Materials, Rare Earths 1. INTRODUCTION Spectral Storage offers the highest possible storage densities thus far. Terabits per square inch and even more have been shown to be possible, in principle. Spectral storage is unlike any other type of storage. Magnetic, holographic, multi-layer storage [1], etc., are all macroscopic scale storage in the sense that the macroscopic properties of the recording material are transformed to record a series of zeros and ones. Spectral storage is at the atomic or microscopic scale. A small number of atoms in a solid-state medium are used to store a bit of information. This is responsible for the high storage density of spectral storage. A cubic micron of solid has ~10 18
Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE•Feb 7, 2008•0 citations