Optical disk drives provide an effective solution to the growing need for removable high-capacity storage. In this paper, we review the technology behind the optical disk drives used in IBM’s optical storage systems. The basic physics of data recording and readout and the engineering of the primary building blocks of an optical drive (the optical head, the servo system, and the data channel) ar...

We experimentally demonstrate time-domain storage and retrieval of amplitude- and phase-encoded optical data, using Raman coherent population trapping, despite the loss of information about absolute optical phases that occurs as a result of the dissipative nature of the process. In this Raman optical storage process homogeneous decay of the optical coherence does not prevent interference betwee...

Plasmonic color generation utilizing ultrathin metasurfaces as well metallic nanoparticles holds a great promise for wide range of applications including displays, data storage, and information encryption due to its high spatial resolution mechanical/chemical stability. Most the recently demonstrated systems generate static colors; however, more advanced such storage require fast flexible means...

The storage requirements of today’s organizations are exploding. As computers continue to escalate in processing power, applications grow in complexity and data files grow in size and in number. As a result, organizations are forced to procure more and more megabytes of storage space. This paper focuses on how to expand the storage capacity of a very large database (VLDB) cost-effectively withi...

We report the experimental observation of optical data storage by frequency-selective stimulated spin echoes based on electromagnetically induced transparency in an inhomogeneously broadened rare-earth-doped solid. We find that the spin dephasing time T(2) is almost constant in the range 2-6 K, whereas the optical T(2) shortens rapidly above 4 K. This experiment demonstrates the potential of sp...

We demonstrate optical data storage in optical fibers and reconstruction by use of low-coherence spectral interferometry. The information was stored by means of writing fiber Bragg gratings with different central wavelengths at different locations of the fiber. We need only a single short pulse is needed to read all the stored data. The maximum theoretical reconstruction rate that can be obtain...

Founded in 1991, Digital Optics Corporation began as a micro-optics developer and is now a leading supplier of diffractive and micro-optical components. In the late 1990s, Digital Optics recognized that the labor-intensive integration and packaging of its components in the optoelectronic industry was driving customer costs higher and was leading manufacturers to seek inexpensive, overseas labor...

The first analysis to our knowledge of the optical data storage density of photon-echo storage is presented. Mainly considering signal-to-noise ratio performance, we calculate the obtainable storage density for data storage and processing using photon echoes to be approximately 100 times the theoretical limit for conventional optical data storage. This limit is similar to that theoretically cal...