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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics

Progress in frequency domain optical storage

Frank M. Schellenberg, W. E. Moerner, M. D. Levenson, Gary C. Bjorklund, D. Jonathan Bernays

Published Jan 1, 1984• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The cryogenic phenomenon of persistent spectral hole burning allows the frequency of a tunable laser source to be utilized as an additional dimension for the organization of an optical data storage system.1 Potential gains of a factor of >1000 in achievable storage densities over conventional optical storage are possible. In addition, extremely fast random access times can be achieved in the frequency dimension.

DOI
10.1364/cleo.1984.thi41

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The cryogenic phenomenon of persistent spectral hole burning allows the frequency of a tunable laser source to be utilized as an additional dimension for the organization of an optical data storage system.1 Potential gains of a factor of >1000 in achievable storage densities over conventional optical storage are possible. In addition, extremely fast random access times can be achieved in the frequency dimension.
Persistent spectral hole burning permits use of optical frequency for encoding digital information at cryogenic temperatures, with storage densities far beyond the limits of conventional laser–disk recording. In the work presented here, several key technological issues of such a storage system have been investigated. Data were encoded with high spatial and spectral resolution using a specially designed cryostat. The fast tuning characteristics of semiconductor diode lasers were studied to test the feasibility of fast data access in the frequency domain. Fast readout was investigated in a simulation experiment using heterodyne detection with frequency modulated diode lasers.
The use of persistent spectral hole burning in optical data storage allows an increase of the storage density up to a factor of 1000 compared to the common spatial matrix of optical bits.1 The information is stored by burning at low temperature a sequence of narrow spectral holes in the inhomogeneously broadened optical transition of optical centers, e.g. dye molecules embedded in an amorphous polymer, with a tunable narrow-bandwidth laser. One bit of information is encoded by the presence or absence of a hole at a given location in frequency space. The information is read by observing the absorption or the fluorescence of the storage material using a laser with tunable frequency. One of the problems of spectral hole burning data storage arises from the fact that for addressing the memory locations the laser frequency has to be changed over a large frequency range with high accuracy and speed.
Persistent spectral hole-burning (PHB, also called photochemical hole-burning) permits use of the optical frequency for encoding digital information through the presence and absence of spectral holes that are burned in inhomogeneously broadened absorption lines at low (liquid helium) temperatures. The optical frequency or wavelength at which a given hole is burned acts as an additional dimension for data storage, hence this optical recording scheme has been called Frequency Domain Optical Storage (FDOS). The combination of spectral and spatial data-recording can make storage densities in excess of 1010 bits/cm2 possible; furthermore, since rotation of the recording medium is not necessary, shorter random access times will result. The future success of the FDOS concept will rely on progress in several technological and engineering areas as well as on advances in several critical materials areas1.
For the last few years, there has been considerable research activity at the IBM San Jose Research Laboratory devoted to frequency domain optical memories based upon photochemical hole burning (PHB). The PHB phenomenon allows optical frequency to be utilized as an additional dimension for the organization of optical memories1 and offers the potential of achieving a 103 gain in achievable storage density over conventional optical memories and a factor of 3 × 104 gain over inductive magnetic recording.