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Optics Letters

Time-domain frequency-selective optical data storage

THOMAS W. MOSSBERG

Published Feb 1, 1982• 376 citations
Publisher

Abstract

It is shown that both the spatial and the temporal behavior of a laser pulse can be stored in and recalled from the spatial and spectral distribution of population in the ground state of an inhomogeneously broadened sample. Implications with regard to high-speed frequency-selective optical memories and ultra-high-speed holographic motion pictures are discussed.

DOI
10.1364/ol.7.000077

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It is shown that both the spatial and the temporal behavior of a laser pulse can be stored in and recalled from the spatial and spectral distribution of population in the ground state of an inhomogeneously broadened sample. Implications with regard to high-speed frequency-selective optical memories and ultra-high-speed holographic motion pictures are discussed.
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).
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 10−9-10−6s).
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.
In this paper, the concept of holographic storage and reproduction of optical signals is generalized for the case of a spectrally highly selective recording medium, which in addition to fixing the spatial intensity distribution of the incident light is also able to memorize its intensity spectrum. We demonstrate persistent storage, recall and conjugation of picosecond light signals from various model objects by making use of coherent optical responses in photochemically active media. A simple linear theory of holographic storage and playback of both the spatial and the temporal behaviour of the signal is shown to well describe the experimental results obtained by utilizing octaethylporphin-doped polystyrene at 1.8 K as a spectrally selective recording material. The proposed method of time- and space-domain holographic recording provides the storage and reproduction of time-dependent optical signals with a duration of 10-8 to 10-13 sec. This presents unique possibilities for ultrahigh-speed data-storage and optical signal-processing.
Time-and-space-domain holography [1,2] can be regarded as an extension of a conventional holographic process, where, in addition to the spatial image, the hologram plays back the time dependence of an event. The play-back of events is possible because we are using highly frequency-selective inhomogeneously broadened absorbers as recording material. This technique has a variety of potential applications in optical data storage and processing. In the present paper we consider the basic physical principle of time-and-space-domain storage in frequency-selective materials which exploit the effect of spectral hole burning [3]. In particular we will show that organic dye-doped spectral hole burning materials allow recording and playback of pi- co- and femtosecond time-scale events.
In standard holographic applications, an object and a reference beam are simultaneously made incident on a recording material. Interference between these beams results in the storage of the spatial Fourier transform of the object pulse in the material. It is shown here that if the storage material is frequency selective (as in the case of inhomogeneously broadened absorbers), not only the spatial but also the temporal structure of the object pulse can be stored in and reconstructed from the material.