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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe & European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/Europe-EQEC)

Spectral programming of temporal pulse sequences using photon echoes

B. Luo, Ulf Elman, Stefan Kröll, Rein K. Kaarli

Published Jan 1, 1996• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Optical memories based on spectral hole burning (SHB) and stimulated photon echoes (SPE) are attracting much attention. Both approaches add an extra dimension for addressing (frequency and temporal dimension respectively) to the spatial dimensions. With these concepts the storage density can become 103 – 106 times higher than in conventional optical memories. In both approaches, the ratio of the inhomogeneous line width to the homogeneous line width of the ions activated in the storage process determines the improvement in storage density. Compared to the SHB approach, SPE has certain advantages including high R/W rate and ability to process the stored (spatial as well we temporal) information. Using SPE, the authors have experimentally realised the AND, OR and NOT logical operations [1,2]. Further all optical processing, such as temporal pattern recognition, can be done using SPE.

DOI
10.1364/cleo_europe.1996.cwf28

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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).

Spectral Hole-Burning and Related Spectroscopies: Science and Applications•Jan 1, 1992•0 citations
Optical memories based on spectral hole burning (SHB) and stimulated photon echoes (SPE) are attracting much attention. Both approaches add an extra dimension for addressing (frequency and temporal dimension respectively) to the spatial dimensions. With these concepts the storage density can become 103 – 106 times higher than in conventional optical memories. In both approaches, the ratio of the inhomogeneous line width to the homogeneous line width of the ions activated in the storage process determines the improvement in storage density. Compared to the SHB approach, SPE has certain advantages including high R/W rate and ability to process the stored (spatial as well we temporal) information. Using SPE, the authors have experimentally realised the AND, OR and NOT logical operations [1,2]. Further all optical processing, such as temporal pattern recognition, can be done using SPE.
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.
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).
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.
This report summarizes the results of a 3-year program of research on the physics and technology needed to develop high-performance optical memory and optical processing systems based on the concept called the stimulated photon echo (SPE). The research goals were investigation, demonstration, and improvement of signal strength and fidelity, architectures and algorithms, and materials properties for optical storage and in-memory processing. Key accomplishments were (1) development and demonstration of efficient algorithms for threshold discrimination and bit-error-rate reduction in retrieved binary images with large in-frame and frame-to-frame intensity variations; (2) demonstration and characterization of information storage in Erbium-doped crystals using 1.5-micron diode lasers compatible with fiber optic communications; (3) demonstration of improved phase-encoding schemes for in-memory temporal correlation of 1.5-micron pulse trains; (4) development of concepts for high-performance radar applications based on SPE optical memory for time-delay control of the transmitter array and in-memory image processing of the return signals; and (5) hosting the AFOSR Contractors' Meeting, "Optoelectronic Information Processing."
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).