This PDF file contains the front matter associated with SPIE Proceedings Volume 9959, including the Title Page, Copyright information, Table of Contents, and Conference Committee listing.

We report the experimental verification of cavity enhanced recording of image bearing holograms in Fe:LiNbO3 with a 532 nm wavelength, CW, single mode, DPSS, Nd:YAG, laser with a cavity on the reference arm. Diffraction efficiency evolution was monitored via pseudo-phase-conjugate readout during recording. Additionally, optimization of grating strengths in standing wave cavity writing is explored, and a means of eliminating unwanted gratings via quarter wave plates with isotropic recording media is proposed.

Holographic memory is expected for cold storage because of the features of huge data capacity, high data transfer rate, and long life time. In holographic memory, a signal beam is modulated by a spatial light modulator according to data pages. The recording density is dependent on information amount per pixel in a data page. However, a binary spatial light modulator is used to realize high data transfer rate in general. In our previous study, an optical conversion method from binary data to multilevel data has been proposed. In this paper, the principle of the method is experimentally verified. In the proposed method, a data page consists of symbols with 2x2 pixels and a four-step phase mask is used. Then, the complex amplitudes of four pixels in a symbol become positive real, positive imaginary, negative real, and negative imaginary values, respectively. A square pixel pattern is spread by spatial frequency filtering with a square aperture in a Fourier plane. When the aperture size is too small, the complex amplitude of four pixels in a symbol is superposed and a symbol is regarded as a pixel with a complex number. In this work, a data page pattern with a four-step phase pattern was generated by using a computer-generated circular polarization hologram (CGCPH). The CGCPH was prepared by electron beam lithography. The page data pattern is Fourier transformed by a lens and spatially filtered by a variable rectangular aperture. The complex amplitude of the spatial filtered data page pattern was measured by digital holography and the principle was experimentally verified.

In microholographic recording, expensive laser diodes having no spectrum broadening (single mode) and no wavelength variation are used. On the other hand, in conventional optical disk systems, cheap laser diodes having spectrum broadening (multimode) and wavelength variation are used. It is a great advantage if the laser diodes for conventional optical disk systems can be used for microholographic recording. Therefore, the effect of wavelength change in microholographic recording was investigated through a numerical simulation. The laser diodes were modeled so that the full width at 1/e2 maximum of the spectrum was 0.8 nm and the center wavelength was 405 nm. The numerical aperture of the objective lenses was 0.85 and the thickness of the recording medium was 300 μm. The diffraction efficiency of the diffracted beam from a microhologram was calculated using the coupled wave theory and the following results were obtained. The diffraction efficiency decreased by three orders of magnitude by replacing single-mode laser diodes with multimode laser diodes, which makes it necessary to enhance the readout signal. The tolerance of the optical path length difference between the signal and reference beams was -50 ~ 110 μm, which makes it necessary to adjust the optical path length difference. The tolerance of the wavelength variation was 405 ± 0.5 nm, which makes it necessary to select the laser diodes. The conclusion was that it is not practical to use the laser diodes for conventional optical disk systems for microholographic recording.

Conventional optical data storage such as digital versatile disc (DVD) and Blu-ray disc (BD), provide us inexpensive and compact media for satisfying information storage requirement for decades. As the knowledge and information increase rapidly, the requirement cannot be already satisfied by current data storage systems. As far as we know, the size of recording mark, the critical storage density indicator, depends on recording energy, writing strategies, opto-thermal threshold plane and thermal conductivity. Readout is limited by optical resolution limit, the wavelength of readout laser and numerical aperture (N.A.) of objective lens. In this talk, I will introduce several means to increase the optical storage density. A powerful tool, conductive-tip atomic force microscopy (C-AFM), with the advantages of high spatial resolution, high contrast of conductivity and non-destructive method to help us better understand the formation of recording marks is also presented. Finally, I will show our recent efforts on realizing the extreme of recording mark.

We successfully completed the development of a GaN based Tunable laser for Tapestry holographic data storage through collaborative research with InPhase Technologies in 2010. After the collaborative research, with the aim to achieve further advance development for commercial storage use, we have continued to improve the laser characteristics, especially coherence property and high optical output power are significant issues for holographic data storage. Longitudinal single mode lasing is one of most important property in hologram recording; therefore we addressed to optimize laser diode structure for external cavity laser. In parallel to that, we have reviewed not only a Laser diode structure but also laser drive processing, and have successfully developed a function. In the case of performing high visibility hologram recording, prior to exposing to medium, both the laser driving current and the wavelength are slightly adjusted to achieve single mode lasing. We call this function “Mode Stabilizer”. Mode Stabilizer can automatically execute the adjustments in combination with an internal mode sensor for visibility sensing. This function is advantageous in that erroneous page-recording can be avoided. Moreover, we achieved high optical output power of 100 mW increased from conventional 45 mW, by optimizing the device structure of GaN Laser diode. With this high optical output power, acceleration of recording bit rate becomes possible.

Collinear holography has been good candidate for a volumetric recording technology of holographic data storage system (HDSS), because of there are not only large storage capacities, high transfer rates, but also the unique configuration, in which the information and reference beams are modulated co-axially by the same spatial light modulator, as a new read/write method for HDSS are very promising. The optical pickup can be designed as small as DVDs, and can be placed on one side of the recording media (disc). In the disc structure, the preformatted reflective layer is used for the focus/tracking servo and reading address information, and a dichroic mirror layer is used for detecting holographic recording information without interfering with the preformatted information. A 2-dimensional digital page data format is used and the shift-multiplexing method is employed to increase recording density. As servo technologies are being introduced to control the objective lens to be maintained precisely to the disc in the recording and reconstructing process, a vibration isolator is no longer necessary. In this paper, we introduced the principle of the collinear holography and its media structure of disc. Some results of experimental and theoretical studies suggest that it is a very effective method. We also discussed some methods to increase the recording density and data transfer rates of collinear holography using phase modulated page data format.

Recently new photopolymers that does not require scheduled exposure in the multiple page writing for the holographic memory was introduced. Its sensitivity does not decrease throughout the multiple page writing process. We will explain why this photopolymer has such a property with our reaction model. The key is the existence of the molecules which make seeds of the polymers. At the first exposure process to record the page data, seeds are produced corresponding to the light intensity distribution. Then after writing the information of all multiplexed pages, the seeds are growing to be polymers under the spatially uniform light illumination.

Shift multiplexing method using a spherical wave is proposed for a holographic memory system based on a computer-generated hologram (CGH). In the proposed method, a propagated signal beam along an optical axis is generated by a CGH. The zero order beam of the CGH is obtained as a point source in the Fourier plane. This point source becomes a spherical reference beam on a recording medium by displacing a Fourier transform lens. The use of the spherical reference beam allows us to implement shift multiplexing in the holographic memory based on a CGH. Shift selectivity of the proposed method is numerically evaluated. In addition, shift multiplexing with the proposed method is numerically demonstrated.

The exact solutions of the set of nonlinear coupled differential equations pertaining to Bragg and non-Bragg orders for the case of interacting angular spectra in a photorefractive medium are obtained numerically. An iron doped lithium niobate is used as a photorefractive material, and the incident wavelength is taken to be 514 nm. During traditional two-beam coupling within a photorefractive material, many non-Bragg orders may also be generated. For solving the set of coupled equations numerically, interactions between the spectra of two Bragg and two non-Bragg orders are considered. The spatial evolution of the spectra of these diffracted orders hence their spatial profiles are studied numerically for different incident profiles.

A decade ago it has been discovered that during femtosecond laser writing self-organized subwavelength structures with record small features of 20 nm, could be created in the volume of silica glass. On the macroscopic scale the self-assembled nanostructure behaves as a uniaxial optical crystal with negative birefringence. The optical anisotropy, which results from the alignment of nano-platelets, referred to as form birefringence, is of the same order of magnitude as positive birefringence in crystalline quartz. The two independent parameters describing birefringence, the slow axis orientation (4th dimension) and the strength of retardance (5th dimension), are explored for the optical encoding of information in addition to three spatial coordinates. The slow axis orientation and the retardance are independently manipulated by the polarization and intensity of the femtosecond laser beam. The data optically encoded into five dimensions is successfully retrieved by quantitative birefringence measurements. The storage allows unprecedented parameters including hundreds of terabytes per disc data capacity and thermal stability up to 1000°. Even at elevated temperatures of 160oC, the extrapolated decay time of nanogratings is comparable with the age of the Universe - 13.8 billion years. The recording of the digital documents, which will survive the human race, including the eternal copies of Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Newton’s Opticks, Kings James Bible and Magna Carta, is a vital step towards an eternal archive. Additionally, a number of projects (such as Time Capsule to Mars, MoonMail, and the Google Lunar XPRIZE) could benefit from the technique's extreme durability, which fulfills a crucial requirement for storage on the Moon or Mars.

Phase change materials are used as the recording layer in optical data storage, electronic storage and nanolithography due to the enormous physical difference between crystalline and amorphous states. In recent years, they are demonstrated to exploit in various tunable plasmonic devices, such as perfect absorber, planar lenses, plasmonic antenna, Fano resonance and so on. However, in these researches, the phase change material merely plays a role as a refractive index switchable substrate. In this paper, we study the intrinsic optical properties of phase change material Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST) in the near-infrared regime. A clear insight into the dipole resonance system of GST is provided. The reflection phase retardation and intensity of each unit cells depending on the phase state and geometry are estimated. Further, we introduce the concept of reconfigurable gradient metasurface, which has different anomalous reflection angles by switching the combination of nanorods with different geometries and phase states. The research has great potential in the area of tunable metamaterial device (metadevice) in the future.

In this paper, we demonstrate a novel approach in which the lattice resonances are tunable in a hybrid plasmonic crystal incorporating the phase-change material Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST) as a 20-nm-thick layer sandwiched between a gold nanodisk array and a quartz substrate. Non-volatile tuning of lattice resonances over a range Δλ of about 500 nm is achieved experimentally via intermediate phase states of the GST layer. This work demonstrates the efficacy and ease of resonance tuning via GST in the near infrared, suggesting the possibility to design broadband non-volatile tunable devices for optical modulation, switching, sensing and nonlinear optical devices. Also, with different nanostructure designs, the constituent plasmonic resonators can be selectively excited, generating isolated near-field energy hot-spots with selective excitation under a monochromatic plane wave illumination. Unlike other proposed techniques, our method for energy hot-spot positioning is based on a quantitative control of the crystalline proportions of the phase-change thin film rather than the complicated manipulations of an incident light beam. This makes such a near-field energy controllable template much easier to be implemented. This near-field energy controllable system consists of gold nano-antennas with deep subwavelength spacing and an underlying GST thin layer. Such a hybrid plasmonic system is easy to be implemented and the nanoscale energy hot-spot can be positioned in a large field of view by extending the system with different plasmon resonators, suggesting a further step toward applications such as nano-imaging, bio-assay addressing and nano-circuitry.