This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project examines holographic data storage based on photorefractive recording materials as a promising approach to overcoming the present I/O bottleneck that exists between high-speed microprocessors and mass storage peripherals. Many of the needed optical systems components (SLMs, CCDS, and tunable diode-lasers) are now available with sufficient performance specifications; however, the lack of a suitable volume recording medium is the primary problem. The medium should possess high sensitivity, large dynamic range, and a reliable mechanism for nondestructive readout. No single material to date satisfies all of these important criteria. Com:One Devices, Inc., proposes to overcome this limitation by using novel doping schemes to provide optimized two-photon photorefractive recording. Evaluation of the dopants is based on detailed spectroscopic and photoconductivity measurements. This approach is designed to provide a viable two-photon recording material that will ultimately be used in a first-generation read-write mass storage demonstration device.
