Abstract

One of the most attractive features of an optical memory is its ability to write and read data in a bit-parallel format, giving rise to theoretically very high (in excess of 1 Gbps) data transfer rates. However, such a potential has not been demonstrated experimentally because of various inherent technical difficulties associated with existing optical storage techniques. In a photorefractive or a persistent spectral hole-burning (PSHB) memory, for example, the time required to record one page varies from a fraction of a second to several seconds.^1-3 For a page containing 1000 × 1000 bits of data, it translates to a bandwidth of approximately 1 Mbps, substantially slower than any existing semiconductor memories.

© 1995 Optical Society of America