Emoeke Loerincz

Polarization holographic data storage using azobenzene polyster as storage material

Polarization holographic read/write and read only demonstrator systems have been developed using ~2 µm thick azobenzene polyester on a card form media. The thin-film holographic system has practical advantages, e.g. high diffraction efficiency, no cross talk between the holograms, reading in reflection mode, no hardware servo, different wavelengths for writing and reading (non-volatile storage), data encryption possibility, no problem with material shrinkage, etc. The candidate azobenzene polyester has good thermal, room temperature and ambient light stability and good optical properties for the purpose of thin film application. Using thin-film holography the possibilities of multiplexing are limited, however, raw data density as high as 2.77 bit/µm2 has been achieved in an optimized Fourier holographic system using high numerical aperture (NA³ 0.74) objective in a 8f arrangement with sparse code modulation and Fourier-filtering at 532 nm. High density polarization holographic demonstrator systems have been developed using ~2μm thick azobenzene polyesters on reflective card form media. FFT computer simulation of the system including saturation model of the material allows optimization of system components including data density and capacity. A raw density as high as 2.77 bit/μm2 has been achieved without multiplexing in a compact, portable read/write sytem at 532 nm allowing more than 1000 readout without data loss. A separate read only system working at 635 nm realizes non-volatile readout and allows card exchange at a data density of 1.3 bit/μm2. Security level of the presents holographic optical card systems can be further increased by using phase encoded reference beam. Advantageous applications of the proposed encrypted holographic card system are also outlined.

Rewritable azobenzene polyester for polarization holographic data storage

Optical storage properties of thin azobenzene side-chain polyester films were examined by polarization holographic measurements. The new amorphous polyester film is the candidate material for the purpose of rewritable holographic memory system. Temporal formation of anisotropic and topographic gratings was studied in case of films with and without a hard protective layer. We showed that the dominant contribution to the diffraction efficiency comes from the anisotropy in case of expositions below 1 sec even for high incident intensity. The usage of the same wavelength for writing, reading and erasing was tested. The ability of azobenzene polyester for rewriting was found satisfactory after many writing-erasing cycles.

Phase modulation configuration of a liquid crystal display

Phase-mostly modulation mode of a Sony LCX016AL-6 liquid crystal display has been found for appropriate elliptical polarization states of the input and output light with calculation using Jones matrices. Phase delay measurement with an accuracy of 2° were performed using a simple diffractive technique at different gray levels. Our measured results agree well with the theoretical calculation with Jones matrices. Both gave about 10% intensity variation and more than 200° phase modulation in the whole range.

Optical system of holographic memory card writing/reading equipment

We developed a standard credit card-shaped general-purpose data carrier, a reflective Holographic Memory Card (HMC), and the appropriate equipment for its handling. Data recording and retrieval are accomplished by polarisation Fourier holography using a thin layer of photo-anisotropic polymer as the storage material. The data density is about 1 bit/micrometers 2, the maximum storage capacity of the card is around 10 Mbytes assuming a 10 x 10 mm storage area. Data is stored in the form of microholograms, from which 40x40 pieces are recorded on the HMC. The optical system involved performs data writing/reading/erasing and also locates the position of the microholograms. Main components of the optical system are an SLM and CCD for opto-electronic conversion, a frequency-doubled solid-state laser source, a beam shaping system that provides homogeneous illumination of the SLM, an interferometer for hologram construction, special Fourier transforming objectives and a random-phase mask for optimised hologram recording. Our results include conceptual planning, design, fabrication and assembling of the optical system. In the present paper we describe principle of operation including layout of the elements, and explain the operation of the equipment in detail.

Optimization of the storage density in thin polarization holograms

We are developing a holographic memory card drive using thin polymer storage layer on credit card sized plastic carriers. The main features of the card are high storage density, re- writability and resistance to harsh environment (e.g. electromagnetic noise, mechanical intolerance, high temperature and humidity). The optical system of this device uses Fourier holograms to record information. The present communication deals with the optimization of the storage density by computer modeling of the system. The model is based on fast Fourier transformations, taking the parameters of the optical processes into account. The model was used to assess the performance of various parameter sets. The results are tested experimentally. The work suggests that storage density higher than 1 bit/micrometers 2 may be achieved in the thin holograms of this memory card at raw bit error rate values below 103.

Single-element refractive optical device for laser beam profiling

A simple, single-element, afocal, refractive optical device with two aspheric surfaces has been designed and fabricated for transformation the Gaussian intensity profile of a He-Ne laser into a collimated beam of uniform profile. The working principle, the method of design, the method of fabrication are presented. Optical and geometrical properties of the fabricated sample have been tested. Device parameters and simulated behavior are compared with test results in detail.

Read/write demonstrator of rewritable holographic memory card system

We present the improved demonstrator of our rewritable holographic memory card system. High density optical storage is realized in a non-commercial optical set-up. Fourier transformed recording is used in a polarization holographic arrangement realizing reading and writing from the same side of the data carrier which is a modified plastic card. Holograms containing binary information of 300 x 220 bits are as small as 0.0484 square mm. The storage layer is amorphous polyester providing repeated writing and erasure cycles and thousandfold readouts without loss of information. Alternate read only system providing non-volatile storage can be realized using 635 nm laser diode.

Data storage on holographic memory card

Our goal is to develop a re-writable holographic memory card system based on thin film polymer media on credit card size plastic carriers. Data is stored in our system in form of polarization holograms that present high efficiency and excellent suppression of higher orders even for thin material. Data is written on the card in a parallel way using spatial light modulators to encode the object beam that is Fourier transformed by a custom objective lens and interferes with the reference beam (of orthogonal polarization) on the card. We use reflective carrier in order to read out the data from the same side of the card. This allows us to have a compact system and standard ID 1 type carrier card. The optical system and the data organization are optimized to have a data density higher than 1bit/micrometers 2. We expect to pass the limit of 10 bit/micrometers 2 with the introduction of phase coded multiplexing that would provide more than 2Gbyte capacity if using half the card area as active surface.

Telecentric/inverse-telecentric objective for optical data storage purposes

In most optical storage methods data bits are stored in the form of microscopic pixels on the surface of an appropriate storage material. Some currently developed techniques apply parallel data processing by multiple data bit access simultaneously. Such methods require special imaging systems for data recording and retrieval. In our laboratory a page- organized optical memory card reading/writing equipment is under development. According to the basic principle 256 by 256 data bits are processed at the same time, the corresponding pixels are arranged in a 2D array format. The same objective is used to image the selected data page both at writing in and reading out. This objective performs diffraction limited imaging in an extended field, it has low distortion, and it images each pixel of the same value with the same intensity. To achieve all these specifications a telecentric/inverse telecentric imaging system (a special type of afocal systems) offered a suitable solution. This paper describes the advantages of telecentric/inverse telecentric systems in optical imaging by detailed presentation of our objective. The discussion includes specification and design process of the objective together with our test results performed on the fabricated prototype.

System modeling and optimization of the polarization Fourier holograhic memory card

The goal of our project is to develop a rewritable holographic memory card system based on thin film polymer media. The data is stored in form of polarization Fourier holograms that present high efficiency even for thin material. The present communication deals with the modeling and the optimization of the system operation. We have developed a computer model based on fast Fourier transformations, taking the parameters of the optical processes into account. The model was used to assess the effect of various parameter sets, optical arrangements and elements on the performance of the system. The results are tested experimentally. Here we present the system model, the main optimization possibilities and other opportunities to utilize the model.