New approach to three-dimensional optical storage

17 Jun 2002

Microholography enables the expansion of bit-oriented storage into the third dimension.

Optical storage on a photopolymer layer has been expanded to three dimensions by researchers at the Technical University of Berlin in Germany. Scientists replaced the conventional grooves in the medium with microscopic reflection gratings that were induced holographically by means of laser irradiation. These gratings allow the application of wavelength multiplexing and multilayer storage and therefore offer the potential of extremely high data-storage densities.

The scientists, Susanna Orlic, Steffen Ulm and Hans Joachim Eichler, obtained good experimental results for writing and reading microholograms in different materials, including DuPont holographic recording films and CROP photopolymers from Polaroid. However, they admit that further research is needed to identify adequate photopolymer materials that could accommodate a technical realization of microholography.

The results were reported in the Journal of Optics A 3(1), from Institute of Physics Publishing