Ultra-high density optical data storage

We have developed a novel, polymer-based material suitable for shrinkage-free thick holography. It can be produced in arbitrary shapes and sizes, with optical quality surfaces and very low scattering noise. A combination of spatial and angular multiplexing in this material can be used to produce a holographic CD-ROM with a storage capacity of one terabyte in the near future. We have demonstrated storage and recall of 1920 frames of a video in a small sample of this material. The storage capacity of holography can be enhanced further by adding spectral multiplexing. In a crystal of Pr:YSO, we have demonstrated spectral multiplexing in two frequency dimensions, at temperatures greater than 10 K. This approach will enable us to achieve a storage capacity exceeding a petabit per cubic cm, using commercially available lasers and closed-cycle cryostats.