Abstract

A high density erasable 3-D memory system based on a polarization vectorial holographic (PVH) dye-polymer medium as a novel approach to real-time rewritable optical storage was investigated. The polymer composite exhibits nondestructive reading at 633 nm, permitting unlimited number of reads per write. A multilayer page-oriented holographic memory architecture having five-dimensional bit addressing was evaluated. High resolution, high storage density, and superior recording data rates are achieved with random and highly parallel addressing. The material response of 80 ps was demonstrated, with potential to attain submicrosecond speed. With fatigue performance of over 1 million cycles measured, the material seems to be quite suitable for erasable all-optic, high density 3-D memory.

© 1992 Optical Society of America