PARALLEL READ/WRITE SYSTEM FOR OPTICAL DATA STORAGE by

Date__________________ The final copy of this thesis has been examined by the signatories, and we find that both the content and the form meet acceptable presentation standards of scholarly work in the above mentioned discipline. ABSTRACT In recent years the capacity of optical storage media has increased significantly. However, the same growth has not been seen in data transfer rate. In order to overcome this disparity, a means of accessing data in parallel is needed. An Acousto-Optic Read/Write system which is capable of producing a number (N) of individually modulated, mutually incoherent diffracted spots can provide the desired increase in data transfer rate. An acousto-optic modulator (AOM) is driven by a number (N) of RF tones creating an index structure that creates N diffracted spots focused to the surface of a disk. The complete AO R/W system is implemented and several experiments are conducted to validate predicted beam size, AO rise time, and the period of interference between adjacent channels. The results show that the creation of multiple incoherent, individually modulated diffracted spots for a parallel optical head is feasible. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS