A general strategy for fabricating thick, optically flat photopolymer recording media with high dynamic range (M/#) that exhibit low levels of recording-induced Bragg detuning for holographic data storage is presented. In particular, media with M/# values as high as 42 in 1-mm-thick formats are obtained. We believe that these results are the first demonstration of a holographic storage medium with a dynamic range of this magnitude. In addition, we report the holographic recording and recovery of high-capacity (480-kbit) digital data pages in these media, further illustrating their data-storage capabilities.

Determination of the glass transition temperature of nonlinear optical planar polymer waveguides by attenuated total reflection spectroscopy

Holographic data storage (HDS), which makes use of the full volume of the recording medium, possesses high potential by promising fast transfer rates of hundreds of Megabytes/sec and storage densities greater than 200 Gbytes per 120mm disk. The restrictions that are placed on the holographic media, however, are stringent. Described here is a high performance photopolymer based medium that has the properties necessary to enable this technology. Through the use of several different holographic techniques, the material characteristics that are necessary for holographic storage products may be determined. The two different systems that are discussed here include Plane Wave and Digital Holographic Data Storage. These measured characteristics include high dynamic range (M/#), sensitivity, and small recording-induced Bragg detuning. In addition, results of archival and shelf-life environmental testing of the media will be discussed.

The holographic recording characteristics of a photopolymer-nanoporous-glass composite are reported. An M/# of 3.2 is measured in this medium by angle multiplexing of a series of plane-wave holograms. In addition, the dimensional stability of the material is demonstrated by the negligible Bragg detuning of a set of angle-multiplexed holograms recorded with varying grating tilt angles and by the relative insensitivity of the detuning to changes in temperature.

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