Masanori Takabayashi

Holographic diversity interferometry for optical storage

This study proposes holographic diversity interferometry (HDI), a system that combines information from spatially dispersed plural image sensors to reconstruct complex amplitude distributions of light signals. HDI can be used to generate four holographic interference fringes having different phases, thus enabling optical phase detection in a single measurement. Unlike conventional phase-shifting digital holography, this system does not require piezoelectric elements and phase shift arrays. In order to confirm the effectiveness of HDI, we generated optical signals having multilevel phases and amplitudes by using two SLMs and performed an experiment for detection and demodulation with HDI.

Self-referential holography and its applications to data storage and phase-to-intensity conversion

Holographic recording methods require the use of a reference beam that is coherent with the signal beam carrying the information to be recorded. In this paper, we propose self-referential holography (SRH) for holographic recording without the use of a reference beam. SRH can realize purely one-beam holographic recording by considering the signal beam itself as the reference beam. The readout process in SRH is based on energy transfer by inter-pixel interference in holographic diffraction, which depends on the spatial phase difference between the recorded phase and the readout phase. The phase-modulated recorded signal is converted into an intensity-modulated beam that can be easily detected using a conventional image sensor. SRH can be used effectively for holographic data storage and phase-to-intensity conversion.

Spatial cross modulation method using a random diffuser and phase-only spatial light modulator for constructing arbitrary complex fields

We propose a spatial cross modulation method using a random diffuser and a phase-only spatial light modulator (SLM), by which arbitrary complex-amplitude fields can be generated with higher spatial resolution and diffraction efficiency than off-axis and double-phase computer-generated holograms. Our method encodes the original complex object as a phase-only diffusion image by scattering the complex object using a random diffuser. In addition, all incoming light to the SLM is consumed for a single diffraction order, making a diffraction efficiency of more than 90% possible. This method can be applied for holographic data storage, three-dimensional displays, and other such applications.

Method of Phase and Amplitude Modulation/Demodulation Using Datapages with Embedded Phase-Shift for Holographic Data Storage

A technique for the phase and amplitude detection of object beams with multivalued phase and amplitude modulation is proposed for holographic storage systems. Generally, the spatial distribution of the complex amplitude of the object beam can be precisely detected by phase-shifting interferometric measurements in which the phase of the reference wave for interferometry is temporally or spatially changed in the datapage retrieval process. On the other hand, our technique allows fast, accurate, and feasible phase and amplitude demodulations by preliminary embedding phase shift into the phase signal of the datapage during recording. This technique will significantly improve the data transfer rate and vibration tolerance of the holographic storage system because the complex amplitudes of the object beam carrying datapages can be detected by single-shot image capturing. The optical system for datapage replay will also be simplified because there is no need to use any phase-shifting device during data retrieval. The single-shot detection of the phase-modulated datapage is experimentally demonstrated.

Shift-multiplexed self-referential holographic data storage

The feasibility and the properties of shift-multiplexed self-referential holographic data storage (SR-HDS) were investigated. Although SR-HDS has attractive features as typified by referenceless holographic recording, its multiplexing properties, which are consummately important for holographic data storage, have not been clarified until now. The results of numerical and experimental evaluations of medium shift dependence in SR-HDS clarified that the shift selectivity is almost the same as in collinear holography. Furthermore, 25 datapages were successfully shift-multiplexed with the shift pitch of 8.3 μm by the numerical simulation.

Two-channel algorithm for single-shot, high-resolution measurement of optical wavefronts using two image sensors

We propose a two-channel holographic diversity interferometer (2ch-HDI) system for single-shot and highly accurate measurements of complex amplitude fields with a simple optical setup. In this method, two phase-shifted interference patterns are generated, without requiring a phase-shifting device, by entering a circularly polarized reference beam into a polarizing beam splitter, and the resulting patterns are captured simultaneously using two image sensors. However, differences in the intensity distributions of the two image sensors may lead to serious measurement errors. Thus, we also develop a two-channel algorithm optimized for the 2ch-HDI to compensate for these differences. Simulation results show that this algorithm can compensate for such differences in the intensity distributions in the two image sensors. Experimental results confirm that the combination of the 2ch-HDI and the calculation algorithm significantly enhances measurement accuracy.

Recording procedures for high-quality signal readout in self-referential holographic data storage

Two methods are proposed to improve the readout quality of signals in self-referential holographic data storage (SR-HDS), in which no reference beam is required to record and read digital data holographically: the off-the-focus (OtF) method and the oversampling additional pattern (OsAP) method. The focal point is located outside of the recording medium in the OtF method, and the signal pattern is recorded with an additional pattern that possesses a higher spatial frequency than the signal pattern in the OsAP method. Experimental results show that both methods are effective for drastically improving the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). In addition, through numerical simulation, it can be observed that the readout quality is improved by the achievement of homogeneous hologram distribution.

Multilayer Collinear Holographic Memory with Movable Random Phase Mask

We proposed a new multilayer collinear holographic memory (MCHM) with a movable random phase mask that can act as an interlayer crosstalk reducer. First, to clarify the feasibility of our proposed device, we showed that it has an extremely sharp shift selectivity along the thickness direction of medium of nearly 5.0 µm when the numerical aperture of the objective lens is 0.60. Next, we demonstrated that the utilization of the movable random phase mask can suppress interlayer crosstalk sufficiently, resulting in the improvement in the quality of reconstructed signals. Moreover, we revealed that the MCHM, in which the parallel use of a multilayered technique and collinear shift multiplexing is performed, brings out the medium potential sufficiently in terms of signal to noise ratio and medium dynamic range consumption. Finally, we verified that the MCHM can achieve a nearly 2 times larger data density at least compared with a conventional collinear holographic memory.

Experiments on Double Phase Conjugate Mirror with a Photorefractive Sb:Sn2P2S6 Crystal

We present various optical basic properties of a 1.5% doped Sb:Sn2P2S6 crystal experimentally and demonstrate a double phase conjugate mirror (DPCM). We measured the reflection, absorption and scattering of this crystal. The large coupling strength Γ L = 8.2 was obtained by the experiment of two-wave mixing. In addition, we succeeded in the formation of the DPCM and achieved the high diffraction efficiency of 42%. This crystal was suitable for DPCM applications of high speed response.

Double-Referential Holography and Spatial Quadrature Amplitude Modulation

We proposed a double-referential holography (DRH) that allows phase-detection without external additional beams. In the DRH, phantom beams, prepared in the same optical path as signal beams and preliminary multiplexed in a recording medium along with the signal, are used to produce interference fringes on an imager for converting a phase into an intensity distribution. The DRH enables stable and high-accuracy phase detection independent of the fluctuations and vibrations of the optical system owing to medium shift and temperature variation. Besides, the collinear arrangement of the signal and phantom beams leads to the compactness of the optical data storage system. We conducted an experiment using binary phase modulation signals for verifying the DRH operation. In addition, 38-level spatial quadrature amplitude modulation signals were successfully reproduced with the DRH by numerical simulation. Furthermore, we verified that the distributed phase-shifting method moderates the dynamic range consumption for the exposure of phantom beams.