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Optical Data Storage

Voltage-tunable optical data storage using persistent spectral hole burning

Udo Bogner, K. Beck, P. Schätz, Max Maier

Published Jan 1, 1985• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

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.

DOI
10.1364/ods.1985.wbb2

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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE•Apr 27, 1993•0 citations
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.
The electric field domain is used as a storage dimension in optical data storage by persistent spectral hole burning. The memory locations in the electric field domain are addressed with the voltage applied to the sample consisting of the amorphous polymer polyvinyl-butyral doped with the dye 9-amino acridine. The information is written by burning spectral holes at different electric field strengths with a HeCd laser and read by detecting the presence or absence of holes with weak laser intensity.
One very exciting application of laser spectroscopy would be to use the high-resolution capabilities of today’s lasers and the phenomenon of persistent spectral hole-burning to form a frequency domain optical storage system.1 In such a system, bits of information would be stored by locally modifying (in the frequency domain) the shape of an inhomogeneously broadened absorption line of an absorber in a solid at low temperatures. Because typical homogeneous widths are 1000X (or more) narrower than typical inhomogeneous widths, as many as 1000 bits could be written in one diffraction-limited 1-μm spot In a sample, yielding the impressive storage density of 1011 bits/cm2.
Persistent spectral hole-burning (PHB) 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 temperatures. The combination of spectral and spatial data recording can make storage densities of 1010 bits/cm2 possible. The most challenging innovation needed to achieve a practical storage system is presented by the complex materials requirements1 on a successful storage medium.
Persistent spectral hole-burning (PHB) is a phenomenon that allows an additional dimension, the frequency at which spectral holes are written, to be used to encode digital data. PHB can be used to store a large number of bits of information in the volume irradiated by a focused laser beam, leading to a possible future storage technology, frequency domain optical storage. A large number of photochemical and photophysical mechanisms have led to the production of spectral holes; a wealth of information has been learned about host-guest interactions, dephasing, and solid-state photochemistry at low temperatures. The general structure of a frequency domain optical store places a set of constraints on the engineering of such a system as well as on the materials used as recording media. The dynamics of the hole-burning process are crucial; for monophotonic mechanisms in particular, a set of stringent constraints can be derived that limit the applicability of this class of materials. Recent discoveries of two-color, photon-gated hole-burning offer special promise for nondestructive reading and improved performance.
Persistent spectral hole-burning (PSHB) and its applications in data storage and processing are described. Purely electronic zero-phonon lines having very high peak values in the low temperature impurity spectra of solids are considered. Limitations for very large capacity PSHB memories put by the number of impurity molecules to store one bit are discussed. Doped with impurities optical fiber memory is proposed as a means to have low impurity concentration simultaneously with a large number of the impurities to store one bit. Bit-by-bit (digital) storage is compared to the distributed one and the advantages of the two versions of the latter -- PSHB holography and PSHB modeling of neural networks -- are considered. An experiment of simultaneous read-out over coordinates and frequency in neural network modeling is described. Requirements to PSHB materials and possibilities of the existence of materials effective at high temperatures are discussed.