Holographic Data Storage System - Seminar Report

Gyan Vihar School of Engineering & Technology
A
Seminar Report on
“ HOLOGRAPHIC DATA STORAGE SYSTEM ”
Submitted in partial fulfillment for the award for
degree of Bachelor of Technology (Computer Engineering)
Session
(2009-2010)
Submitted To Submitted By
Mr. Naveen Hemrajani Anoop Nair
Head of Department Roll No. - 10
Computer Science Computer Science
Computer Science Engineering
Gyan Vihar School of Engineering and Technology
Jagatpura, Jaipur
Certificate
This is to certify that the Final Seminar Report entitled “Holographic Data Storage
System” is an authentic record of the work carried out by Anoop Nair, Computer
Science, VIII Semester. The report is submitted to Gyan Vihar School of
Engineering and Technology, Jaipur, India, in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the award of the degree Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science
Engineering during the academic year 2009-2010, VIII Semester.
It is further certified that the work embodied in the report has not been submitted to
any other University or Institute for the award of any degree or diploma.
Naveen Hemrajani
Head of Department
(Computer Science)
G.V.S.E.T
Computer Science Department Holographic Data Storage System (HDSS) 1

Acknowledgment
Firstly I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Almighty for

His solemn presence throughout the seminar study. I would also like to
express my special thanks to the HOD Mr. Naveen Hemrajani for
providing an opportunity to undertake this seminar. I am deeply indebted
to our seminar coordinators for providing me with valuable advice and
guidance during the course of the study.
I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to the Faculty of the

Department of Computer Science and Engineering for their constructive
support and cooperation at each and every juncture of the seminar study.
Finally I would like to express my gratitude to Gyan Vihar College of

Engineering and Technology for providing me with all the required
facilities without which the seminar study would not have been possible.

Table of Contents
 Certificate
 Acknowledgment
 Table of contents
1. Abstract............................................................................8
2. Introduction....................................................................9
3. Technical Aspect...........................................................14
Holography Memory layout..................................................................16
4. Removable Media Storage Devices...............................17

Floppy Disk................................................................................................................17
Optical Formats.........................................................................................................17
CD-ROM...................................................................................................................18
DVD-ROM................................................................................................................18
DVD-R.......................................................................................................................20
DVD-RAM................................................................................................................20
DVD-RW..................................................................................................................21
+RW..........................................................................................................................21
Magneto-Optical Format..........................................................................................21
5. Holograms..................................................................23
Volume Holograms..................................................................................................23

6. Underlying Technology...........................................25
Holography...............................................................................................................25
Interference & Diffraction.........................................................................................26
Plane Wavefronts......................................................................................................26
Point Sources............................................................................................................27
Complex Objects......................................................................................................28
7. Working.....................................................................31
8. Application to Binary...............................................34
Spatial Light Modulator...........................................................................................34
Page Data Access.....................................................................................................34
9. Application to Binary...............................................34
Angular Multiplexing...............................................................................................36
Wavelength Multiplexing.........................................................................................37
Spatial Multiplexing..................................................................................................37
Phase-Encoded Multiplexing...................................................................................37
Combining Multiplexing Methods...........................................................................38
10.Error Correction.....................................................38
Recording Errors....................................................................................................38
Page-Level Parity Bits.............................................................................................39
Smart Interfacing....................................................................................................40
Intelligent Interfacing.............................................................................................40
11. Implementation.................................................................41
12. Holographic Memory Vs Existing Memory Technology......43
13. Hardware For Holographic Data Storage...............................44
14. HDSS Testers...........................................................................46

Prism Tester.............................................................................................................46
Demon I...................................................................................................................48

Demon II.................................................................................................................49
Innovative Optics.....................................................................................................52
Axicon......................................................................................................................52
Aspherical Apodizer................................................................................................53
Phase-Conjugate Readout.......................................................................................55
15. Coding and Signal Processing..................................................59

Binary Detection.....................................................................................................60
Interpixel Interference.............................................................................................61
Error Correction.....................................................................................................62
Predidtortion...........................................................................................................64
Gray Scale................................................................................................................65
Capacity Estimation................................................................................................66
16. Associative Retrieval................................................................67
17. Recording Materials................................................................72
18. Outlook...................................................................................86
19.Application...............................................................88
Holographic Versatile Disv...................................................................................88
20.Advantages & Disadvantages of HDSS...............97
21. Comparison...............................................................98
22.HVD at a glance.....................................................99
23.References................................................................101

Abstract
Holographic Versatile Disc (HVD) is an optical disc technology still in the research stage which
would greatly increase storage over Blue-ray Disc and HD DVD optical disc systems. It employs
a technique known as collinear holography, whereby two lasers, one red and one blue-green, are
collimated in a single beam. The blue-green laser reads data encoded as laser interference fringes
from a holographic layer near the top of the disc while the red laser is used as the reference beam
and to read servo information from a regular CD-style aluminium layer near the bottom. Servo
information is used to monitor the position of the read head over the disc, similar to the head,
track, and sector information on a conventional hard disk drive. On a CD or DVD this servo
information is interspersed amongst the data.
A dichroic minor layer between the holographic data and the servo data reflects the blue-green
laser while letting the red laser pass through. This prevents interference from refraction of the
blue-green laser off the servo data pits and is an advance over past holographic storage media,
which either experienced too much interference, or lacked the servo data entirely, making them
incompatible with current CD and DVD drive technology. These discs have the capacity to hold
up to 3.9 terabyte(TB) of information, which is approximately 6,000 times the capacity of a CD-
ROM, 830 times the capacity of a DVD, 160 times the capacity of single-layer Blu-ray Discs, and
about 8 times the capacity of standard computer hard drives as of 2006. The HVD also has a
transfer rate of 1 gigabit/s. Optware has released a 200 GB disc in early June 2006 and Maxell in
September 2006 with a capacity of 300 GB and transfer rate of 20 MB/s.

Introduction
With its omnipresent computers, all connected via the Internet, the Information Age has led to an
explosion of information available to users. The decreasing cost of storing data, and the increasing
storage capacities of the same small device footprint, has been key enablers of this revolution.
While current storage needs are being met, storage technologies must continue to improve in order
to keep pace with the rapidly increasing demand.
Devices that use light to store and read data have been the backbone of data storage for nearly two
decades. Compact discs revolutionized data storage in the early 1980s, allowing multi-megabytes
of data to be stored on a disc that has a diameter of a mere 12 centimeters and a thickness of about
1.2 millimeters. In 1997, an improved version of the CD, called a digital versatile disc (DVD),
was released, which enabled the storage of full-length movies on a single disc.
CDs and DVDs are the primary data storage methods for music, software, personal computing and
video. A CD can hold 783 megabytes of data. A double-sided, double-layer DVD can hold 15.9
GB of data, which is about eight hours of movies. These conventional storage mediums meet
today's storage needs, but storage technologies have to evolve to keep pace with increasing
consumer demand. CDs, DVDs and magnetic storage all store bits of information on the surface of
a recording medium. In order to increase storage capabilities, scientists are now working on a new
optical storage method called holographic memory that will go beneath the surface and use the
volume of the recording medium for storage, instead of only the surface area. Three-dimensional
data storage will be able to store more information in a smaller space and offer faster data transfer
times.
Holographic memory is developing technology that has promised to revolutionalise the storage
systems. It can store data upto 1 Tb in a sugar cube sized crystal. Data from more than 1000 CDs
can fit into a holographic memory System. Most of the computer hard drives available today can
hold only 10 to 40 GB of data, a small fraction of what holographic memory system can hold.
Conventional memories use only the surface to store the data. But holographic data storage
systems use the volume to store data. It has more advantages than conventional storage systems. It
is based on the principle of holography. However, both magnetic and conventional optical data
storage technologies, where individual bits are stored as distinct magnetic or optical changes on
the surface of a recording medium, are approaching physical limits beyond which individual bits
may be too small or too difficult to store. Storing information throughout the volume of a medium
—not just on its surface— offers an intriguing high-capacity alternative. Holographic data storage
is a volumetric approach which, although conceived decades ago, has made recent progress
toward practicality with the appearance of lower-cost enabling technologies, significant results
from longstanding research efforts, and progress in holographic recording materials.
In holographic data storage, an entire page of information is stored at once as an optical

interference pattern within a thick, photosensitive optical material (Figure 1). This is done by
intersecting two coherent laser beams within the storage material. The first, called the object
beam, contains the information to be stored; the second, called the reference beam, is designed to
be simple to reproduce—for example, a simple collimated beam with a planar wavefront. The
resulting optical interference pattern causes chemical and/or physical changes in the
photosensitive medium: A replica of the interference pattern is stored as a change in the
absorption, refractive index, or thickness of the photosensitive medium. When the stored
interference grating is illuminated with one of the two waves that were used during recording

[Figure 2(a)], some of this incident light is diffracted by the stored grating in such a fashion that
the other wave is reconstructed. Illuminating the stored grating with the reference wave
reconstructs the object wave, and vice versa [Figure 2(b)]. Interestingly, a backward-propagating
or phase-conjugate reference wave, illuminating the stored grating from the “back” side,
reconstructs an object wave that also propagates backward toward its original source [Figure 2(c)].
A large number of these interference gratings or patterns can be superimposed in the same thick
piece of media and can be accessed independently, as long as they are distinguishable by the
direction or the spacing of the gratings. Such separation can be accomplished by changing the
angle between the object and reference wave or by changing the laser wavelength. Any particular
data page can then be read out independently by illuminating the stored gratings with the reference
wave that was used to store that page. Because of the thickness of the hologram, this reference
wave is diffracted by the interference patterns in such a fashion that only the desired object beam
is significantly reconstructed and imaged on an electronic camera. The theoretical limits for the
storage density of this technique are around tens of terabits per cubic centimeter.
Figure 2:
Reading of holographic information by (a)
Illumination with the reference beam, which is
diffracted by the stored interference pattern to
Figure 1:
reconstruct the original spherical wavefront of the
Storage of one bit of information as a hologram: (a)
object beam. This beam can be imaged to a single
Superposition of the spherical wave from one bit with a
small detector, resulting in the retrieval of a single
coherent plane wave reference beam forming an bit. (b) Illumination with the diverging object beam,
interference pattern. (b) Exposure of a photosensitive which is diffracted by the stored interference beam.
medium to the interference pattern. (c) Record of the This beam can be focused to a detector, representing
interference grating, stored as changes in the refractive an optical measurement of the correlation between
properties of the medium. the stored data and the illuminating object beam,
allowing content-addressable searching. (c)
Illumination with a counter-propagating (or “phase-
conjugate”) reference beam, which is diffracted by
the stored interference pattern to reconstruct a phase-
conjugate copy of the original beam. This phase-
conjugate object beam returns to its original point of
origin, where the stored bit value can be read without
requiring a high-quality imaging system.

In addition to high storage density, holographic data storage promises fast access times, because
the laser beams can be moved rapidly without inertia, unlike the actuators in disk drives. With the
inherent parallelism of its pagewise storage and retrieval, a very large compound data rate can be
reached by having a large number of relatively slow, and therefore low-cost, parallel channels.
The data to be stored are imprinted onto the object beam with a pixelated input device called a
spatial light modulator (SLM); typically, this is a liquid crystal panel similar to those on laptop
computers or in modern camcorder viewfinders. To retrieve data without error, the objectbeam
must contain a high-quality imaging system—one capable of directing this complex optical
wavefront through the recording medium, where the wavefront is stored and then later retrieved,
and then onto a pixelated camera chip (Figure 3).
The image of the data page at the camera must

be as close as possible to perfect. Any optical
Figure 3:
Basic holographic data system. Data are imprinted onto
the object beam with a pixelated input device called a
spatial light modulator (SLM). A pair of lenses images
the data through the storage material onto pixelated
detector array such as a charge-coupled device (CCD).
A reference beam intersects the object beam in the
storage material, allowing the storage and later
retrieval of holograms
aberrations in the imaging system or misfocus

of the detector array would spread energy from one pixel to its neighbors. Optical distortions
(where pixels on a square grid at the SLM are not imaged to a square grid) or errors in
magnification will move a pixel of the image off its intended receiver, and either of these
problems (blur or shift) will introduce errors in the retrieved data. To avoid having the imaging
system dominate the overall system performance, near-perfect optics would appear to be
unavoidable, which of course would be expensive. However, the above-mentioned readout of
phase-conjugated holograms provides a partial solution to this problem. Here the reconstructed
data page propagates backward through the same optics that were used during the recording,
which compensates for most shortcomings of the imaging system. However, the detector and the
spatial light modulator must still be properly aligned.
A rather unique feature of holographic data storage is associative retrieval: Imprinting a partial or
search data pattern on the object beam and illuminating the stored holograms reconstructs all of
the reference beams that were used to store data. The intensity that is diffracted by each of the
stored interference gratings into the corresponding reconstructed reference beam is proportional to
the similarity between the search pattern and the content of that particular data page. By
determining, for example, which reference beam has the highest intensity and then reading the
corresponding data page with this reference beam, the closest match to the search pattern can be
found without initially knowing its address.

Because of all of these advantages and capabilities, holographic storage has provided an intriguing
alternative to conventional data storage techniques for three decades. However, it is the recent
availability of relatively low-cost components, such as liquid crystal displays for SLMs and solid-
state camera chips from video camcorders for detector arrays, which has led to the current interest
in creating practical holographic storage devices. A team of scientists from the IBM Research
Division have been involved in exploring holographic data storage, partially as a partner in the
DARPA-initiated consortia on holographic data storage systems (HDSS) and on photorefractive
information storage materials (PRISM). In this paper, we describe the current status of our effort.
The overall theme of our research is the evaluation of the engineering tradeoffs between the
performance specifications of a practical system, as affected by the fundamental material, device,
and optical physics. Desirable performance specifications include data fidelity as quantified by
bit-error rate (BER), total system capacity, storage density, readout rate, and the lifetime of stored
data. This report begins by describing the hardware aspects of holographic storage, including the
test platforms we have built to evaluate materials and systems tradeoffs experimentally, and the
hardware innovations developed during this process. Phase-conjugate readout, which eases the
demands on both hardware design and material quality, is experimentally demonstrated. The
second section of the report describes our work in coding and signal processing, including
modulation codes, novel preprocessing techniques, the storage of more than one bit per pixel, and
techniques for quantifying coding tradeoffs.
Then we discuss associative retrieval, which introduces parallel search capabilities offered by no
other storage technology. The fourth section describes our work in testing and evaluating
materials, including permanent or write-once read-many-times (WORM) materials, read–write
materials, and photon-gated storage materials offering reversible storage without sacrificing the
lifetime of stored data.
Technical Aspects
Like other media, holographic media is divided into write once (where the storage medium
undergoes some irreversible change), and rewritable media (where the change is reversible).
Rewritable holographic storage can be achieved via the photorefractive effect in crystals:
 Mutually coherent light from two sources creates an interference pattern in the media.

These two sources are called the reference beam and the signal beam.
 Where there is constructive interference the light is bright and electrons can be promoted
from the valence band to the conduction band of the material (since the light has given the
electrons energy to jump the energy gap). The positively charged vacancies they leave are

called holes and they must be immobile in rewritable holographic materials. Where there is
destructive interference, there is less light and few electrons are promoted.
 Electrons in the conduction band are free to move in the material. They will experience
two opposing forces that determine how they move. The first force is the Coulomb
force between the electrons and the positive holes that they have been promoted from. This
force encourages the electrons to stay put or move back to where they came from. The second
is the pseudo-force of diffusion that encourages them to move to areas where electrons are less
dense. If the coulomb forces are not too strong, the electrons will move into the dark areas.
 Beginning immediately after being promoted, there is a chance that a given electron will
recombine with a hole and move back into the valence band. The faster the rate of
recombination, the fewer the number of electrons that will have the chance to move into the
dark areas. This rate will affect the strength of the hologram.
 After some electrons have moved into the dark areas and recombined with holes there,
there is a permanent space charge field between the electrons that moved to the dark spots and
the holes in the bright spots. This leads to a change in the index of refraction due to
the electro-optic effect.
When the information is to be retrieved or read out from the hologram, only the reference beam is
necessary. The beam is sent into the material in exactly the same way as when the hologram was
written. As a result of the index changes in the material that were created during writing, the beam
splits into two parts. One of these parts recreates the signal beam where the information is stored.
Something like a CCD camera can be used to convert this information into a more usable form.
Holograms can theoretically store one bit per cubic block the size of the wavelength of light in
writing. For example, light from a helium-neon laser is red, 632.8 nm wavelength light. Using
light of this wavelength, perfect holographic storage could store 4 gigabits per cubic millimeter. In
practice, the data density would be much lower, for at least four reasons:
 The need to add error-correction

 The need to accommodate imperfections or limitations in the optical system
 Economic payoff (higher densities may cost disproportionately more to achieve)

 Design technique limitations—a problem currently faced in magnetic Hard Drives wherein
magnetic domain configuration prevents manufacture of disks that fully utilize the theoretical
limits of the technology.
Unlike current storage technologies that record and read one data bit at a time, holographic
memory writes and reads data in parallel in a single flash of light.

HOLOGRAPHIC MEMORY LAYOUT

REMOVABLE MEDIA STORAGE DEVICES (RMSDs)
Let us have a glance on the different RMSDs.
Floppy Disk
Floppy disk drives provide faster data access because they access data randomly. Floppy drives provide an
average data access speed of less than 100 milliseconds (ms). The 1.44-MB, 3.5-inch floppy is useful for
storing and backing up small data files, can be used to boot computer systems, and has been the standard
for data interchange between PCs. However it provides only a fraction of the storage capacity required for
many files and most software programs in use today. Storing data on floppy drives also is slow. Data
transfer rates average around 0.06 MB/sec.
Floppy disk
Optical Formats
Optical RMSD formats use a laser light source to read and/or write digital data to disc. CD and
DVD are two major optical formats. CDs and DVDs have similar compositions consisting of a
label, a protective layer, a reflective layer (aluminum, silver, or gold), a digital-data layer molded
in polycarbonate, and a thick polycarbonate bottom layer
CD formats include:
 Compact disc-read only memory (CD-ROM)

 Compact disc-recordable (CD-R)
 Compact disc-rewritable (CD-RW)
 DVD formats include:
 Digital versatile disc-read only memory (DVD-ROM)
 Digital versatile disc-recordable (DVD-R)
 DVD-RAM (rewritable)
 Digital versatile disc-rewritable (DVD-RW)
 +RW (rewritable)
CD-ROM
CD-ROM Standard was established in 1984.They quickly evolved into a low cost digital storage
option because of CD-audio industry Data bits are permanently stored on a CD as a spiral track of
physically molded pits in the surface of a plastic data layer that is coated with reflective
aluminum. Smooth areas surrounding pits are called lands. CDs are extremely durable because the
optical pickup (laser light source, lenses and optical elements, photoelectric sensors, and
amplifiers) never touches the disc. Because data is read through the thick bottom layer, most
scratches and dust on the disc surface are out of focus, so they do not interfere with the reading
process. One CD-ROM (650-700 MB) storage capacity can store data from more than 450 floppy
disks. Data access rate ranges from 80 to 120 ms. Data transfer rates are approximately 6 MB/sec.
DVD-ROM
The DVD-ROM standard, introduced in 1995 came over as a result of a DVD consortium. Like
CD drives, DVD drives read data through the disc substrate reducing interferences from surface
dust and scratches. However DVD-ROM technology provides seven times the storage capacity of
CDs and accomplishes most of this increase by advancing the technology used for CD systems.
The distance between recording tracks is less than half that is used for CDs. The pit size also is
less than half that of CDs, which requires a reduced laser wavelength read the smaller sized pits.
These features alone give DVD-ROM discs 4.5 times the storage capacity of CDs. DVD drives
can also store on both sides of the disc; manufacturers deliver the two-sided structure by bonding
two thinner substrates together, providing the potential to double a DVD's storage capacity. Single
sided DVD discs have the two fused substrates, but only one side contains data.
In a DVD, storage of data in the data layers can be:

 Single-sided, single layer (4.7 GB)
 Double-sided, single layer (9.4 GB)
 Single-sided, double layer (8.5 GB)
 Double-sided, double layer (17 GB)

DVD Data Storage Versions
DVD-R
DVD-R drives were introduced in 1997 to provide write-once capability on DVD-R discs used for
producing disc masters in software development and for multimedia post-production. This
technology sometimes referred to as DVD-R for authoring, is limited to niche applications
because drives and media are expensive. DVD-R discs employ a photosensitive dye technology
similar to CD-R media. At 3.95 GB per side, the first DVD-R discs provided a little less storage
capacity than DVD-ROM discs. That capacity has now been extended to the 4.7-GB capacity of
DVD-ROM discs. The 1X DVD-R data transfer rate is 1.3 MB/sec. Most DVD-ROM drives and
DVD video players read DVD-R discs. Slightly modified DVD-R drives and discs have recently
become available for general use.
DVD-RAM

DVD-RAM (rewritable) drives were introduced in 1998. DVD-RAM devices use a phase change
technology combined with some embossed land/pit features. Employing a format termed "land
groove", data is recorded in the grooves formed on the disc and on the land between the grooves.
The initial disc capacity was 2.6 GB per side, but a 4.7 GB- per-side version is now available. The
4.7-GB DVD-RAM discs come in cartridges that protect the medium from handling damage, such
as fingerprints and scratches. A single-sided disc is expected to be removable from the cartridge
so it can also be played in DVD-ROM drives that support DVD-RAM. The double-sided disc,
providing 4.7GB of storage capacity per side, is not removable from the cartridge. Each DVD-
RAM disc is reported to handle more than 100,000 rewrites. DVD-RAM is specifically designed
for PC data storage; DVD-RAM discs use a storage structure based in sectors, instead of the spiral
groove structure used for CD data storage. This sector storage is similar to the storage structure
used by hard drives. Sector storage results in faster random data access speed. Because of their
high cost relative to CD-RW technology, current consumer-oriented DVD-RAM drives and media
are not a popular choice for PC applications. Slow adoption of DVD-RAM reading capability in
DVD-ROM drives has also limited DVD-RAM market acceptance.

DVD-RW
The DVD-RW drive format is similar to the DVD-R format, but offers rewritability using a phase-
change recording layer that is comparable to the phase change layer used for CD-RW. DVD-RW
is intended for consumer video (non-PC) use, but PC applications are also expected for this
technology. The first DVD-RW drives based on this format, which also recorded DVD-R discs,
were introduced in early 2001
+RW
Sony and Philips were founding members of the DVD consortium, but broke away to introduce
the DVD+RW (now called +RW) phase change, rewritable technology in 1997. Discs can be
written approximately 1000 times, which makes them a good option for video recording, but not
optimal for data storage. +RW technology's strongest feature is its backward compatibility with
DVD-ROM drives and DVD video players.
Magneto-Optical Formats
Magneto-optical (MO) technology combines the strengths of magnetic and optical technologies by
using a laser to read data and the combination of a laser and magnetic field to write data. The top
(label side) of the disk is exposed to a magnetic field to write data, and a laser light source targets
the data layer through the bottom substrate to read data.
There are 3.5- and 5.5-inch disk formats that contain a magnetic alloy layer. Magnetic particles in
the alloy are very stable and resist changing polarity at room temperature. Data bits re recorded on
this magnetic layer by heating it with a focused laser beam in the presence of magnetic field.
Changes in the magnetic orientation of the data bits along a track represents Os and I s much like
on hard disks and other magnetic media. The magnetic layer also changes the rotation or
polarization of reflected laser light depending on the 0 or 1 polarity of the magnetic bits. This
property called the "Kerr Effect" and is used to read the data. MO systems also increase the data
bits vertically rather than horizontally.

The 3.5-inch disks are available in 128-, 230-, and 640- MB storage capacities. The 5.25-inch
disks come in 650-MB and 1.3-, 2.6-, and 5.2-GB sizes. A 9.1 - GB size is expected soon. At less
than 25ms, data access times faster than the average 100ms of phase change CD and DVD
technologies. MO drives are widely used in Japan for general-purpose storage, similar to the way
Zip drives are used in the U.S. Outside of Japan; applications for MO drives typically have been in
niche markets for Computer-Aided Design/Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAD/CAM),
document imaging, and high-capacity archives.
Magneto-Optical disk

Holograms
A hologram is a recording of the optical interference pattern that forms at the intersection of two
coherent optical beams. Typically, light from a single laser is split into two paths, the signal path
and the reference path. The beam that propagates along the signal path carries information,
whereas the reference is designed to be simple to reproduce. A common reference beam is a plane
wave: a light beam that propagates without converging or diverging. The two paths are overlapped
on the holographic medium and the interference pattern between the two beams is recorded. A key
property of this interferometric recording is that when it is illuminated by a readout beam, the
signal beam is reproduced. In effect, some of the light is diffracted from the readout beam to
“reconstruct” a weak copy of the signal beam. If the signal beam was created by reflecting light
off a 3D object, then the reconstructed hologram makes the 3D object appear behind the
holographic medium. When the hologram is recorded in a thin material, the readout beam can
differ from the reference beam used for recording and the scene will still appear.
Volume Holograms
To make the hologram, the reference and object beams are overlapped in a photosensitive
medium, such as a photopolymer or inorganic crystal. The resulting optical interference pattern
creates chemical and/or physical changes in the absorption, refractive index or thickness of the
storage media, preserving a replica of the illuminating interference pattern. Since this pattern
contains information about both the amplitude and the phase of the two light beams, when the
recording is illuminated by the readout beam, some of the light is diffracted to “reconstruct” a
weak copy of the object beam .If the object beam originally came from a 3–D object, then the
reconstructed hologram makes the 3–D object reappear. Since the diffracted wave front
accumulates energy from throughout the thickness of the storage material, a small change in either
the wavelength or angle of the readout beam generates enough destructive interference to make
the hologram effectively disappear through Bragg selectivity.

Figure 4
Reconstruction of an image from a hologram
As the material becomes thicker, accessing a stored volume hologram requires tight tolerances on
the stability and repeatability of the wavelength and incidence angle provided by the laser and
readout optics. However, destructive interference also opens up a tremendous opportunity: a small
storage volume can now store multiple superimposed holograms, each one distributed throughout
the entire volume. The destructive interference allows each of these stored holograms to be
independently accessed with its original reference beam. To record a second, angularly
multiplexed hologram, for instance, the angle of the reference beam is changed sufficiently so that
the reconstruction of the first hologram effectively disappears. The new incidence angle is used to
record a second hologram with a new object beam. The two holograms can be independently
accessed by changing the readout laser beam angle back and forth. For a 2-cm hologram
thickness, the angular sensitivity is only 0.0015 degrees. Therefore, it becomes possible to store
thousands of holograms within the allowable range of reference arm angles (typically 20–30
degrees). The maximum number of holograms stored at a single location to date is 10,000.

Underlying Technology
HOLOGRAPHY
Holographic data storage refers specifically to the use of holography to store and retrieve digital
data. To do this, digital data must be imposed onto an optical wave front, stored holographically
with high volumetric density, and then extracted from the retrieved optical wav front with
excellent data fidelity. A hologram preserves both the phase and amplitude of an optical wave
front of interest called the object beam – by recording the optical interference pattern between it
and a second coherent optical beam – the reference beam. Figure shows this process.
The reference beam is designed to be simple to reproduce at a later stage (A common reference
beam is a plane wave a light beam that propagates without converging or diverging). These
interference fringes are recorded if the two beams have been overlapped within a suitable
photosensitive media, such as a photopolymer or inorganic crystal or photographic film. The
bright and dark variations of the interference pattern create chemical and/or physical changes in

the media, preserving a replica of the interference pattern as a change in absorption, refractive
index or thickness.
Though holography is often referred to as 3D photography, this is a misconception. A better

analogy is sound recording where the sound field is encoded in such a way that it can later be
reproduced. In holography, some of the light scattered from an object or a set of objects falls on
the recording medium. A second light beam, known as the reference beam, also illuminates the
recording medium, so that interference occurs between the two beams. The resulting light field is
an apparently random pattern of varying intensity which is the hologram. It can be shown that if
the hologram is illuminated by the original reference beam, a light field is diffracted by the
reference beam which is identical to the light field which was scattered by the object or objects.
Thus, someone looking into the hologram "sees" the objects even though they are no longer
present. There are a variety of recording materials which can be used, including photographic
film.
Interference and diffraction

Interference occurs when one or more wavefronts are superimposed. Diffraction occurs whenever
a wavefront encounters an object. The process of producing a holographic reconstruction is
explained below purely in terms of interference and diffraction. It is somewhat simplistic, but is
accurate enough to provide an understanding of how the holographic process works.
Plane wavefronts
A diffraction grating is a structure with a repeating pattern. A simple example is a metal plate with
slits cut at regular intervals. Light rays travelling through it are bent at an angle determined by λ,
the wavelength of the light and d, the distance between the slits and is given by sinθ = λ/d.
A very simple hologram can be made by superimposing two plane waves from the same light
source. One (the reference beam) hits the photographic plate normally and the other one (the
object beam) hits the plate at an angle θ. The relative phase between the two beams varies across
the photographic plate as 2π y sinθ/λ where y is the distance along the photographic plate. The
two beams interfere with one another to form an interference pattern. The relative phase changes
by 2π at intervals of d = λ/sinθ so the spacing of the interference fringes is given by d. Thus, the
relative phase of object and reference beam is encoded as the maxima and minima of the fringe
pattern.
When the photographic plate is developed, the fringe pattern acts as a diffraction grating and when
the reference beam is incident upon the photographic plate, it is partly diffracted into the same
angle θ at which the original object beam was incident. Thus, the object beam has been
reconstructed. The diffraction grating created by the two waves interfering has reconstructed the
"object beam" and it is therefore a hologram as defined above.
Point sources
A slightly more complicated hologram can be made using a point source of light as object beam
and a plane wave as reference beam to illuminate the photographic plate. An interference pattern
is formed which in this case is in the form of curves of decreasing separation with increasing
distance from the centre.
The photographic plate is developed giving a complicated pattern which can be considered to be
made up of a diffraction pattern of varying spacing. When the plate is illuminated by the reference
beam alone, it is diffracted by the grating into different angles which depend on the local spacing
of the pattern on the plate. It can be shown that the net effect of this is to reconstruct the object
beam, so that it appears that light is coming from a point source behind the plate, even when the
source has been removed. The light emerging from the photographic plate is identical to the light
that emerged from the point source that used to be there. An observer looking into the plate from
the other side will "see" a point source of light whether the original source of light is there or not.
This sort of hologram is effectively a concave lens, since it "converts" a plane wavefront into a
divergent wavefront. It will also increase the divergence of any wave which is incident on it in

exactly the same way as a normal lens does. Its focal length is the distance between the point
source and the plate.
Complex objects
To record a hologram of a complex object, a laser beam is first split into two separate beams of
light using a beam splitter of half-silvered glass or a birefringent material. One beam illuminates
the object, reflecting its image onto the recording medium as it scatters the beam. The second
(reference) beam illuminates the recording medium directly.
According to diffraction theory, each point in the object acts as a point source of light. Each of
these point sources interferes with the reference beam, giving rise to an interference pattern. The
resulting pattern is the sum of a large number (strictly speaking, an infinite number) of point
source + reference beam interference patterns.
When the object is no longer present, the holographic plate is illuminated by the reference beam.
Each point source diffraction grating will diffract part of the reference beam to reconstruct the
wavefront from its point source. These individual wavefronts add together to reconstruct the
whole of the object beam.
The viewer perceives a wavefront that is identical to the scattered wavefront of the object
illuminated by the reference beam, so that it appears to him or her that the object is still in place.
This image is known as a "virtual" image as it is generated even though the object is no longer
there. The direction of the light source seen illuminating the virtual image is that of the original
illuminating beam.
This explains, albeit in somewhat simple terms, how transmission holograms work. Other
holograms, such as rainbow and Denisyuk holograms, are more complex but have similar
principles.

When the recording is illuminated by a readout beam similar to the original reference beam, some
of the light is diffracted to “reconstruct” a copy of the object beam as shown in Fig if the object
beam originally came from a 3-D object, then the reconstructed hologram makes the 3-D object
reappear.
To reconstruct the object exactly from a transmission hologram, the reference beam must have the
same wavelength and curvature, and must illuminate the hologram at the same angle as the
original reference beam (i.e. only the phase can be changed). Departure from any of these
conditions will give a distorted reconstruction. While nearly all holograms are recorded using
lasers, a narrow-band lamp or even sunlight is enough to recognize the reconstructed image.

Working
A holographic data storage system consists of a recording medium, an optical recording system,
and a photodetector array. A beam of coherent light is split into a reference beam and a signal
beam which are used to record a hologram into the recording medium. The recording medium is
usually a photorefractive crystal such as LiNbO3 or BaTiO3 that has certain optical characteristics.
These characteristics are high diffraction efficiency, high resolution, permanent storage until
erasure, and fast erasure on the application of external stimulus such as UV light. A ‘hologram’ is
simply the three-dimensional interference pattern of the intersection of the reference and signal
beams at 90degree to each other. This interference pattern is imprinted into the crystal as regions
of positive and negative charge. To retrieve the stored hologram, a beam of light that has the same
wavelength and angle of incidence as the reference beam is sent into the crystal and the resulting
diffraction pattern is used to reconstruct the pattern of the signal beam.
Many different holograms may be stored in the same crystal volume by changing the angle of
incidence of the reference beam. One characteristic of the recording medium that limits the
usefulness of holographic storage is the property that every time the crystal is read with the
reference beam, the stored hologram at that “location” is disturbed by the reference beam and
some of the data integrity is lost. With current technology, recorded holograms in Fe- and Tb-
doped LiNbO3 that use UV light to activate the Tb atoms can be preserved without significant
decay for two years.
A series of spectral memory demonstration experiments have been conducted at the University of
Oregon. These experiments employ a 780-nm commercial semiconductor diode laser as the light
source, a crystal of Tm3+:YAG as the frequency selective recording material, and an avalanche
photodiode as a signal detector. The diode laser was stabilized to an external cavity containing a
grating and an electro optic crystal. The intracavity electro optic crystal provides for microsecond
timescale sweeping of the laser frequency over roughly one gigahertz. Two storage (reference and
data) beams and one reading beam, are created from the output of the single laser source using the
beam splitter and the acousto-optic modulators shown in figure. The beams are focused to a 150
m2 spot in a Tm3+:YAG crystal. The reference and data beams are simultaneous as are the read
and signal beams.

The most common holographic recording system uses laser light, a beam splitter to divide the
laser light into a reference beam and a signal beam, various lenses and mirrors to redirect the light,
a photorefractive crystal, and an array of photodetectors around the crystal to receive the
holographic data. To record a hologram, a beam of laser light is split into two beams by a mirror.
These two beams then become the reference and the signal beams. The signal beam interacts with
an object and the light that is reflected by the object intersects the reference beam at right angles.
The resulting interference pattern contains all the information necessary to recreate the image of
the object after suitable processing. The interference pattern is recorded onto the photoreactive
material and may be retrieved at a later time by using a beam that is identical to the reference
beam (including the wavelength and the angle of incidence into the photoreactive material). This
is possible because the hologram has the property that if it is illuminated by either of the beams
used to record it, the hologram causes light to be diffracted in the direction of the second beam
that was used to record it, thereby recreating the reflected image of the object if the reference
beam was used to illuminate the hologram. So, the reflected image must be transformed into a real
image with mirrors and lenses that can be sent to the laser detector array.

There are many different volume holographic techniques that are being researched. The most
promising techniques are angle-multiplexed, wavelength multiplexed, spectral, and phase
conjugate holography. Angle- and wavelength- multiplexed holographic methods are very similar,
with the only difference being the way data is stored and retrieved, either multiplexed with
different angles of incidence of the reference beam, or with different wavelengths of the reference
beam. Spectral holography combines the basic principles of volume holography using a
photorefractive crystal with a time sequencing scheme to partition holograms into their own
subvolume of the crystal using the collision of ultrashort laser pulses to differentiate between the
image and the time-delayed reference beam. Phase-conjugate holography is a technique to reduce
the total volume of the system (the system includes recording devices, storage medium, and
detector array) by eliminating the need for the optical parts between the spatial light modulator
(SLM) and the detector.
The SLM is an optical device that is used to convert the real image into a single beam of light that
will intersect with the reference beam during recording. Phase-conjugate holography eliminates
these optical parts by replacing the reference beam that is used to read the hologram with a
conjugate reference beam that propagates in the opposite direction as the bam used for recording.
The signal diffracted by the hologram being accessed is sent back along the path from which it
came, and is refocused onto the SLM, which now serves as both the SLM and the detector.
There are two main classes of materials used for the holographic storage medium. These are
photorefractive crystals and photopolymers (organic films). The most commonly used
photorefractive crystals used are LiNbO3 and BaTiO3. During hologram recording, the refractive
index of the crystal is changed by migration of electron charge in response to the imprinted three
dimensional interference patterns of reference and signal beams. As more and more holograms are
superimposed into the crystal, the more decay of the holograms occurs due to interference from
the superimposed holograms. Also, holograms are degraded every time they are read out because
the reference beam used to read out the hologram alters the refractive nature of the crystal in that
region. Photorefractive crystals are suitable for random access memory with periodic refreshing of
data, and can be erased and written to many times. Photopolymers have been developed that can
also be used as a holographic storage medium.

Typically the thickness of photopolymers is much less than the thickness of photorefractive
crystals because the photopolymers are limited by mechanical stability and optical quality. An
example of a photopolymer is DuPont’s HRF-150. This film can achieve 12 bits/nm2 with a 100
nm thickness, which is greater than DVD-ROM by a factor of two. When a hologram is recorded,
the interference pattern is imprinted into the photopolymer by inducing photochemical changes in
the film. The refractive index modulation is changed by changing the density of exposed areas of
the film. Stored holograms are permanent and do not degrade over time or by readout of the
hologram, so photopolymers are suited for read-only memory (ROM).
APPLICATION TO BINARY
In order for holographic technology to be applied to computer systems, it must store data in a form
that a computer can recognize. In current computer systems, this form is binary. For this the
source beam is manipulated. In computer applications, this manipulation is in the form of bits. The
next section explains the spatial light modulator, a device that converts laser light into binary data.
Spatial Light Modulator (SLM)

A spatial light modulator is used for creating binary information out of laser light. The SLM is a
2D plane, consisting of pixels which can be turned on and off to create binary 1’s and 0’s. An
illustration of this is a window and a window shade. It is possible to pull the shade down over a
window to block incoming sunlight. If sunlight is desired again, the shade can be raised. A spatial
light modulator contains a two dimensional array of windows which are only microns wide. These
windows block some parts of the incoming laser light and let other parts go through. The resulting
cross section of the laser beam is a two dimensional array of binary data, exactly the same as what
was represented in the SLM. After the laser beam is manipulated, it is sent into the hologram to be
recorded. This data is written into the hologram as page form. It is called this due to its
representation as a two dimensional plane, or page, of data. Figure below shows a Spatial Light
Modulator implemented with a LCD panel.

Spatial Light Modulator (SLM)
Page Data Access

Because data is stored as page data in a hologram, the retrieval of this data must also be in this
form. Page data access is the method of reading stored data in sheets, not serially as in
conventional storage systems. Conventional storage was reaching its fundamental limits. One such
limit is the way data is read in streams. Holographic memory reads data in the form of pages
instead. For example, if a stream of 32 bits is sent to a processing unit by a conventional read
head, a holographic memory system would in turn send 32 x 32 bits, or 1024 bits due to its added
dimension. This provides very fast access times in volumes far greater than serial access methods.
The volume could be one Megabit per page using a SLM resolution of 1024 x 1024 bits at 15-20
microns per pixel.

MULTIPLEXING
Once one can store a page of bits in a hologram, an interface to a computer can be made. The
problem arises, however, that storing only one page of bits is not beneficial. Fortunately, the
properties of holograms provide a unique solution to this dilemma. Unlike magnetic storage
mechanisms which store data on their surface, holographic memories store information throughout
their whole volume. After a page of data is recorded in the hologram, a small modification to the
source beam before it reenters the hologram will record another page of data in the same volume.
This method of storing multiple pages of data in the hologram is called multiplexing. The thicker
the volume becomes, the smaller the modifications to the source beam can be.
Angular Multiplexing
When a reference beam recreates the source beam, it needs to be at the same angle it was during
recording. A very small alteration in this angle will make the regenerated source beam disappear.
Harnessing this property, angular multiplexing changes the angle of the source beam by very
minuscule amounts after each page of data is recorded. Depending on the sensitivity of the
recording material, thousands of pages of data can be stored in the same hologram, at the same
point of laser beam entry. Staying away from conventional data access systems which move
mechanical matter to obtain data, the angle of entry on the source beam can be deflected by high-
frequency sound waves in solids. The elimination of mechanical access methods reduces access
times from milliseconds to microseconds.
Figure above shows a compact module that uses angular multiplexing. The module is composed of
a photorefractive crystal in which holograms are stored, a pair of liquid crystal beam steerers (one
of which is hidden behind the crystal) that is responsible for angularly multiplexing holograms in
the crystal, and an Opto Electronic Integrated Circuit (OEIC) that merges the functions of a
reflective spatial light modulator (SLM) for recording holograms and a detector array for readout.
One is aligned at unit magnification with the photo detectors that sense it, because of the
conjugate nature of the readout process and because the detectors are located within the same
OEIC pixels as the modulators used to record the holograms. Furthermore, the OEIC provides a
solution to the volatility of holograms stored in a read–write photorefractive memory.
Wavelength Multiplexing
Used mainly in conjunction with other multiplexing methods, wavelength multiplexing alters the
wavelength of source and reference beams between recordings. Sending beams to the same point
of origin in the recording medium at different wavelengths allows multiple pages of data to be
recorded. Due to the small tuning range of lasers, however, this form of multiplexing is limited on
its own.
Spatial Multiplexing
Spatial multiplexing is the method of changing the point of entry of source and reference beams
into the recording medium. This form tends to break away from the non-mechanical paradigm
because either the medium or recording beams must be physically moved. Like wavelength
multiplexing, this is combined with other forms of multiplexing to maximize the amount of data
stored in the holographic volume. Two commonly used forms of spatial multiplexing are
peristrophic multiplexing and shift multiplexing.
Phase-Encoded Multiplexing
The form of multiplexing farthest away from using mechanical means to record many pages in the
same volume of a holograph is called phase-encoded multiplexing. Rather than manipulate the
angle of entry of a laser beam or rotate/translate the recording medium, phase encoded
multiplexing changes the phase of individual parts of a reference beam. The main reference beam
is split up into many smaller partial beams which cover the same area as the original reference
beam. These smaller beamlets vary by phase which changes the state of the reference beam as a
whole. The reference beams intersects the source beam and records the diffraction relative to the
different phases of the beamlets. The phase of the beamlets can be changed by nonmechanical
means, therefore speeding up access times.
Combining Multiplexing Methods
No single multiplexing method by itself is the best way to pack a hologram full of information.
The true power of multiplexing is brought out in the combination of one or more methods. Hybrid
wavelength and angular multiplexing systems have been tested and the results are promising.
Recent tests have also been formed on spatial multiplexing methods which create a hologram the
size of a compact disc, but which hold 500 times more data.
ERROR CORRECTION
It is inevitable that storing massive amounts of data in a small volume will be error prone. Factors
exist in both the recording and retrieval of information which will be covered in the following
subsections, respectively. In order for holographic memory systems to be practical in next
generation computer systems, a reliable form of error control needs to be created.
Recording Errors
When data is recorded in holographic medium, certain factors can lead to erroneously recorded
data. One major factor is the electronic noise generated by laser beams. When a laser beam is split
up (for example, through a SLM), the generated light bleeds into places where light was meant to
be blocked out. Areas where zero light is desired might have minuscule amounts of laser light
present, which mutates its bit representation. For example, if too much light gets recorded into this
zero area representing a binary 0, an erroneous change to a binary 1 might occur. Changes in both
the quality of the laser beam and recording material are being researched, but these improvements

must take into consideration the cost-effectiveness of a holographic memory system. These
limitations to current laser beam and photosensitive technology are some of the main factors for
the delay of practical holographic memory systems.
Page-Level Parity Bits
Once error-free data is recorded into a hologram, methods which read data back out of it need to
be error free as well. Data in page format requires a new way to provide error control. Current
error control methods concentrate on a stream of bits. Because page data is in the form of a two
dimensional array, error correction needs to take into account the extra dimension of bits. When a
page of data is written to the holographic media, the page is separated into smaller two
dimensional arrays. These subsections are appended with an additional row and column of bits.
The added bits calculate the parity of each row and column of data. An odd number of bits in a
row or column create a parity bit of 1 and an even number of bits creates a 0. A parity bit where
the row and column meet is also created which is called an overall parity bit. The sub-sections are
rejoined and sent to the holographic medium for recording. When data is read back from storage,
another row and column are added called parity check bits. Because the row of parity bits evens
out the data, the addition or subtraction of a bit of 0 stored data will cause two of the parity check
bits to become a one. The overall parity check bit becomes a one and the place of error is
calculated. The calculation occurs by finding where the column parity check bit and the row parity
check bit meet up in the original data. This erroneous bit is flipped and the data is read out error
free. If there happens to be two or more errors in the original data, the overall parity check bit
becomes a zero and the page is re-read.
Like error control, the I/O interface to modern computer systems needs to be tailored to data
retrieval in page format. Bits are no longer read from a stream, they are sent to the computer as
sheets. Clearly the I/O interface needs to be changed to accommodate for this. One of the
problems with such large amounts of data being fed to a processor is that the incoming data may
exceed the processor’s throughput. This is where interfacing needs to bridge the data in a coherent
fashion between memory and processor. In the following subsections, two kinds of interfacing are
covered which vary in a unique way.

Smart Interfacing
Smart interfacing is a method of controlling the way data is sent to the processor from holographic
memory by a pre-defined set of logical commands. These logical commands come from outside
the stored memory and are provided to control the way data is managed before going to the
processor. An example of these pre-defined instructions are the fixed set of rules used by error
detection and correction. Because these rules stay the same throughout memory retrieval, they can
be hard coded into the smart interfacing agent.
Intelligent Interfacing
Seemingly the same as smart interfacing by name, intelligent interfacing is different in one
important way. Intelligent interfacing has external control signals which can be manipulated to
transform incoming data in a non-static manner. These signals create a way for the intelligent
interfacing agent to reduce the incoming data in a meaningful way. For example, a data mining
system could utilize these control signals to ignore certain data which is not a part of the pattern
being searched for. Intelligent interfacing agents can contain the functionality of smart interfaces
such as error control, but have the added feature of dynamically changing the way data passes
through it.

Implementation
A holographic data storage system consists of a recording medium, an optical recording system, a
photo detector array. A beam of coherent light is split into a reference beam and a signal beam
which are used to record a hologram in the recording medium. The recording medium is usually a
photo refractive crystal.
A ‘hologram’ is simply the three-dimensional interference pattern of the intersection of the

reference and signal beams are perpendicular to each other. This interference pattern is imprinted
into the crystal as regions of positive and negative charges. To retrieve the stored holograms, a
beam of light that has the same wavelength and angle of incidence as the reference beam is sent
into the crystal and the resulting diffraction pattern is used to reconstruct the pattern of the signal
beam. Many different holograms may be stored in the same crystal volume by changing the angle
of incidence of reference beam.
The most common holographic recording system uses laser light, a beam splitter to divide the
laser light into reference beam and signal beam, various lenses and mirrors to redirect the light, a
photo reactive crystal, and an array of photo detectors around the crystal to receive the
holographic data. To record a hologram, a beam laser light is split into two beams by mirror.
These two beams then become the reference and the signal beams. The signal beam interacts with
an object and the light that is reflected by the object intersects the reference beam at right angles.
The resulting interference pattern contains all the information necessary to recreate the image of
the object after suitable processing. The interference pattern is recorded on to a photo reactive
material and may be retrieved at a later time by using a beam that is identical to the reference
beam. This is possible because the hologram has the property that if it is illuminated by either of
the beams used to record it, the hologram causes light to be diffracted in the direction of the

second beam that was used to record it, there by recreating the reflected image of the object if the
reference beam was used to illuminate the hologram. So the reflected must be transformed into the
real image with mirrors and lenses that can be sent to the laser detector array
In the memory hierarchy, holographic memory lies somewhere between RAM and magnetic
storage in terms of data transfer rates, storage capacity, and data access times. The theoretical
limit of the number of pixels that can be stored using volume holography is V2/3/2 where V is the
volume of the recording medium and is the wavelength of the reference beam.
For green light, the maximum theoretical storage capacity is 0.4 Gbits/cm2 for a page size of 1 cm
x 1 cm. Also, holographic memory has an access time near 2.4 ms, a recording rate of 31 KB/s,
and a readout rate of 10 GB/s. Modern magnetic disks have data transfer rates in the neighborhood
of 5 to 20 MB/s. Typical DRAM today has an access time close to 10 – 40 ns, and a recording rate
of 10 GB/s
Table 1: The table on the next page shows the comparison of access time, data transfer rates
(readout), and storage capacity (storage density) for three types of memory; holographic, RAM,
and magnetic disk.

Storage Medium Access Time Data Transfer Rate Storage Capacity
Holographic Memory 2.4 ns 10 GB/s 400 Mbits/ cm2
Main Memory
10 – 40 ns 5 MB/s 4.0 Mbits/ cm2
(RAM)
Magnetic Disk 8.3 ms 5 – 20 MB/s 100 Mbits/ cm2
Holographic memory has an access time somewhere between main memory and magnetic disk, a
data transfer rate that is an order of magnitude better than both main memory and magnetic disk,
and a storage capacity that is higher than both main memory and magnetic disk. Certainly if the
issues of hologram decay and interference are resolved, then holographic memory could become a
part of the memory hierarchy, or take the place of magnetic disk much as magnetic disk has
displaced magnetic tape for most applications.

Hardware for holographic data storage
Figure shows the most important hardware components in a holographic storage system: the SLM
used to imprint data on the object beam, two lenses for imaging the data onto a matched detector
array, a storage material for recording volume holograms, and a reference beam intersecting the
object beam in the material. What is not shown in Figure is the laser source, beam-forming optics
for collimating the laser beam, beam splitters for dividing the laser beam into two parts, stages for
aligning the SLM and detector array, shutters for blocking the two beams when needed, and wave
plates for controlling polarization.
Assuming that holograms will be angle-multiplexed (superimposed yet accessed independently

within the same volume by changing the incidence angle of the reference beam), a beam-steering
system directs the reference beam to the storage material. Wavelength multiplexing has some
advantages over angle-multiplexing, but the fast tunable laser sources at visible wavelengths that
would be needed do not yet exist.
The optical system shown in Figure, with two lenses separated by the sum of their focal lengths, is
called the “4-f” configuration, since the SLM and detector array turn out to be four focal lengths
apart. Other imaging systems such as the Fresnel configuration (where a single lens satisfies the
imaging condition between SLM and detector array) can also be used, but the 4-f system allows
the high numerical apertures (large ray angles) needed for high density. In addition, since each
lens takes a spatial Fourier transform in two dimensions, the hologram stores the Fourier
transform of the SLM data, which is then Fourier transformed again upon readout by the second
lens. This has several advantages: Point defects on the storage material do not lead to lost bits, but
result in a slight loss in signal-to-noise ratio at all pixels; and the storage material can be removed
and replaced in an offset position, yet the data can still be reconstructed correctly. In addition, the
Fourier transform properties of the 4-f system lead to the parallel optical search capabilities
offered by holographic associative retrieval. The disadvantages of the Fourier transform geometry
come from the uneven distribution of intensity in the shared focal plane of the two lenses, which
we discuss in the axicon section below.

Holographic digital data storage testers
In order to study the recording physics, materials, and systems issues of holographic digital data
storage in depth, we have built three precision holographic recording testers. Each of these
platforms is built around the basic design shown in above figure, implementing mapping of single
SLM pixels to single detector pixels using precision optics in the object beam, and angle
multiplexing in the reference beam. In addition, care has been taken in the design and assembly of
the components listed above but not shown in figure, in order to allow experimental access to a
wide range of holographic data storage parameters with minimal instrumental contributions to the
raw error rate. The three testers, described in the following sections, are called the PRISM tester,
the DEMON I platform, and the DEMON II platform.
 PRISM tester
The PRISM tester, built as part of the DARPA Photo Refractive Information Storage Materials
consortium, was designed to allow the rigorous evaluation of a wide variety of holographic
storage materials. This tester was designed for extremely low-baseline BER performance,
flexibility with regard to sample geometry, and high stability for both long recording exposures
and experimental repeatability. The salient features of the PRISM tester are shown in Figure.
The SLM is a chrome-on-glass mask, while the detector array is a lowframe- rate, 16-bit-per-pixel
CCD camera. Custom optics of long focal length (89 mm) provide pixel matching over data pages
Figure 4:
Primary feature of the PRISM holographic
materials test apparatus. The SLM is chrome-
on-glass, and the detector array a 1024 x
1024 portion of a large CCD camera. A pair
of precision rotation stages allows the
reference beam to enter the storage material
under test at any horizontal incidence angle.
as large as one million pixels, or one megapel. A
pair of precision rotation stages directs the reference
beam, which is originally below the incoming object
beam, to the same horizontal plane as the object
beam. By rotating the outer stage twice as far as the
inner, the reference-beam angle can be chosen from the entire 360-degree angle range, with a
repeatability and accuracy of approximately one microradian. (Note, however, that over two 30-
degree-wide segments within this range, the reference-beam optics occlude some part of the
objectbeam path.) The storage material is suspended from a three-legged tower designed for
interferometric stability (better than 0.1 mm) over time periods of many seconds. The secondary
optics occupy approximately 2 feet by 4 feet of optical table space, and the tower and stages

approximately 4 feet by 4 feet. The system is equipped with an argon (514.5-nm) and a krypton
(676-nm) laser, and all optics are optimized to work at both wavelengths. Beam-forming optics
and shutters control the power and polarization of the object and reference beams, and relay optics
over expand the object beam to ensure a uniform illumination of the data mask. Precision linear
stages control the position of the data mask in two axes (allowing selection from a set of multiple
patterns), the Fourier lenses in one axis each (to control magnification), and the crystal position in
three axes. In addition, the crystal can be rotated about two axes, and the camera position
controlled in three linear axes and one rotational axis. All stages and shutters are under computer
control, allowing direct operator control of the system as well as unsupervised execution of long
experiments. While the camera uses 1024 x 1024 detector pixels on 9-mm centers, data masks are
available with pixel pitch of 36 mm (resulting in 65 536 data pixels), 18 mm (262 144 pixels), and
9 mm (1 048 576 data pixels, also known as a “megapel”). The baseline BER performance of the
system without a storage material (limited only by the imaging system) was estimated to be 1 x
10218 with the low resolution mask, 1 x 10212 with the medium-resolution mask, and 1 x 1027
with the megapel data mask.
Figure 5 shows the experimental

demonstration of holographic storage and
retrieval of a 1Mb data page, with object and
reference beams entering orthogonal faces
(90-degree geometry) of a Fe-doped lithium
niobate (LiNbO3) crystal. This histogram
shows the occurrence of intensity levels in
the data page detected by the camera. Since
the data mask pattern of bright (“1”) and dark
(“0”) pixels is known, the intensity levels of
each of these classes can be plotted
separately. In the absence of random noise
and deterministic variations, all bright pixels
would have the same detected intensity,
which would be well separated from the
intensity of all dark pixels, resulting in two spikes. Instead, the distribution of intensities makes it
more difficult to apply a single threshold and separate the bright and dark pixels in the real data-
retrieval scenario (for which the data mask
pattern is, by definition, unknown). While this Figure 5:
particular page has no detected errors, the Histogram of received data values for an error-free
distributions can be fitted with Gaussian one-million-pixel data page reconstructed with a one-
approximations to provide a BER estimate of million second pulse of read-out light. There are two
2.4 x 1026. Since this hologram was retrieved measured distribution of received intensities: dark
using a readout pulse of 1 ms, this experiment (binary “0”) pixels on the left, and bright (“1”) pixels
implements the optical signal (but not the on the right. The intensity scale covers the 12-bit range
subsequent fast electronic readout) of a system of CCD camera. In the absence of noise, each
with a readout rate of 1 Gb/s. distribution would be a single spike (all detector pixel
which were supposed to receive a bright pixel would
measure exactly the same intensity). If the two
 DEMON I distributions were to blur into each other, a simple
intensity threshold would not be able to assign binary
While PRISM was designed to handle any values without error.
conceivable material testing requirement, the
DEMON I platform, shown in Figure 6, was
built to be a platform for evaluating coding and signal processing techniques. The

reference/object-beam geometry was restricted to the 90-degree geometry, and the reference beam
deflected with a galvanometrically actuated mirror through a simple 4-f system, limiting the
variation of the angle to 610 degrees. A transmissive liquid crystal SLM, capable of displaying
arbitrary data patterns, was pixel-matched onto a small, 60-Hz CCD camera in two stages. First, a
precision five element zoom lens demagnified the SLM (640 3 480 pixels with 42-mm pitch) to an
intermediate image plane (same pixel count on 18-mm pitch). Then a set of Fourier lenses
identical to those in the PRISM imaged this plane 1:1 onto the detector array (640 3 480 pixels,
but 9-mm pitch). Because of the finer pitch on the CCD, only the central 320 3 240 field of the
SLM was detected. To implement true pixel matching, the detector was aligned so that light from
each SLM pixel fell squarely on a single detector pixel (thus ignoring three of every four pixels on
the CCD). Laser light from the green 514.5-nm line of an argon-ion laser was delivered to the
platform with a single-mode polarization-preserving optical fiber, which produces a clean
Gaussian intensity profile.

Optical
power
delivered
to the
Figure 6:
Salient feature of the DEMON I holographic digital data storage engine.
A five-element zoom lens demagnifies the SLM to an intermediate image
plane, which is then imaged to the CCD detector with a pair of lenses. The
reference beam and object beams enter orthogonal faces of a LiNbO 3
crystal; a galvanometrically actuated scanner changes the reference beam
angle over ±10 degrees about the normal.
apparatus prior to the object/reference beamsplitter was as much as 400 mW. Simple linear stages
move the SLM in two axes and the CCD in three axes for alignment. The entire system, not
including the laser, occupies 18 3 24 inches of optical table space.
The first experiment performed on the DEMON I tester was the demonstration of multiple
hologram storage at low raw BER (BER without error correction) using modulation codes, which
allow decoding over smaller pixel blocks than the global thresholding described above. Using an
8-mm-thick LiNbO3:Fe crystal storage medium and a strong modulation code (8:12), 1200
holograms were superimposed and read back in rapid succession with extremely low raw BER (,2
3 1028) . In addition, the DEMON I platform has been used to implement both associative
retrieval and phase-conjugate readout, as described below.

 DEMON II
The DEMON II holographic storage platform, shown in Figure 7, was designed to achieve high-
density holographic data storage using short-focal-length optics, while including aspects of the
previous two test platforms. DEMON II combines the large data pages of the PRISM tester with
the dynamic SLM and the 90-degree geometry configuration of the DEMON I platform. Here, the
SLM is a reflective device fabricated by IBM Yorktown, containing 1024 x 1024 pixels and
illuminated via a polarizing beam splitter cube. A novel apodizer, described in the next section,
provides uniform illumination over the entire data page without sacrificing input power. The
magnification from the 12.8-mm pitch of the SLM pixels to the 12-mm pitch of the 41-Hz CCD
camera (1024 x 1024 pixels, 41 frames per second) is built into the Fourier optics (effective focal
length 30 mm). A pair of scan lenses provides an improved relay of the reference beam from the
galvanometrically actuated mirror to the LiNbO3 crystal, providing diffraction-limited
performance over an angular scan range of 615 degrees.
Figure 7:
Primary features of the DEAMON II holographic digital data storage
engine. Utilizing 30-mm-focal-length. Fourier transform lenses in the
90-degree geometry with a one-million-pixel SLM, this system has
demonstrated areal storage densities in excess of 100 bits/µm 2

The laser light is provided by a diode-pumped solidstate laser (532 nm, doubled Nd-YAG);
waveplates and polarizing beamsplitters provide control over the power in the reference beam and
object beam. The use of two separate elements in the back Fourier lens (between the storage
material and the detector array) allows the magnification of the optical system to be varied over a
range of 60.5%. Linear stages provide two axes of motion for the storage material and three axes
of motion for the detector array. The entire system, including the laser, occupies 2 feet x 2 feet. As
with the PRISM and DEMON I systems, all stages and shutters are under computer control,
allowing both direct operator control of the system and unsupervised execution of complex
scripted experiments.
The short focal length of the DEMON II optics allows the system to demonstrate high areal
storage densities (the storage capacity of each stack of holograms, divided by the area of the
limiting aperture in the object beam). Since the lenses in the object beam implement a two
dimensional spatial Fourier transform, an aperture placed in the central focal plane of the 4-f
system (just in front of the storage material) can be described as a spatial lowpass filter. The
smaller the volume allocated to each stack of holograms, the larger the capacity of a given large
block of storage material. However, if the aperture is decreased too far, some of the information
from the SLM fails to pass through the aperture. The size of the smallest tolerable aperture
corresponds to the spatial equivalent of the Nyquist sampling condition, in which the spatial
frequency sampling on the SLM (one over its pixel pitch) is twice the maximum spatial frequency
allowed to pass the limiting aperture. Only for apertures equal to or larger than this so-called
“Nyquist” aperture is the information from all pixels of the SLM guaranteed to pass to the detector
array. Since both “positive” and “negative” spatial frequencies are represented in a centered
aperture, the Nyquist aperture turns out to be equal to the inverse of the pixel pitch of the SLM,
scaled by the wavelength and the focal length of the lenses. The design of the imaging optics is
then complicated by this need for short focal length, since the maximum ray angle (and thus the
potential for optical aberrations) is greatly increased. The optical distortion (displacement of pixel
centers from a rectangular grid) in the DEMON II platform is consequently much larger than in
the other two testers, reaching approximately 0.03% (0.3 pixels) in the corners of the received data
page. The development of signal-processing algorithms to compensate for his mis registration
between SLM and CCD pixels is a research topic that we are currently pursuing, with some initial
success.

 Innovative optics
In the course of development of PRISM, DEMON I, and DEMON II, a number of challenging
optical design problems arose. Here we describe two innovative hardware solutions that have been
developed.
 Axicon
As previously noted, the Fourier transform process used to focus the object beam into the storage
media has the side effect of producing an undesired high-intensity peak on the optical axis. This
intensity spike can easily saturate the photosensitive response of the storage media, resulting in
severe degradation of both transmitted images and stored holograms. It has been known for many
years that a potential solution to this problem can be implemented by superimposing a random
phase distribution on the pixels of the SLM. In work performed by M.-P. Bernal et al. at IBM
Almaden, it was shown that although such a “random phase mask” does redistribute the intensity
in this spike, the alignment of such a phase mask is critical, and new optical artifacts (dark lines
and interference fringe effects) are introduced in the transmitted image. These artifacts, along with
the difficulty of maintaining the alignment of yet another pixelated component, have made it
improbable that random phase masks will be the solution to the coherent saturation problem.
Figure 8:
A convex axicon deflects the Fourier components of the pixelated
data mask into a toroid. This spreads out the rays, which would
otherwise focus to a single large spike at the optical axis of the
focal plane and distort holographic data pages

As an alternative, we have developed several optical structures which also spread the energy in the
undesired intensity spike across the Fourier transform plane, without requiring precision
alignment. One particular structure of interest is the axicon, a simple cylindrically symmetric cone
of glass, typically with an oblique vertex angle. Introducing the axicon in the illumination beam of
the SLM distributes the undesired intensity spike along a ring in the Fourier plane. The diameter
of the ring depends on the vertex angle of the conical optic, the index of refraction, and the focal
length of the Fourier lens. The axicon can either be placed directly behind the data mask or SLM,
as shown in Figure 8, or, preferably, imaged onto the SLM using some relay optics. In the latter
case, there is some slight longitudinal alignment sensitivity (but little sensitivity to transverse
position). These relay optics can double as the beam expander used to fill the SLM aperture, with
the axicon placed at its input focal plane. The axicon has been shown to slow down the
degradation of the objectbeam imaging path with optical exposure to the same degree as the
random phase mask, without requiring precision alignment or increasing interpixel crosstalk.
Aspherical apodizer
Typical laser beams have a spatial profile dictated by the oscillation mode of the laser resonator,
with the simplest mode having a Gaussian or bell-shaped profile. The simplest method for
generating a beam with a uniform (or flat) spatial profile is to simply expand a Gaussian beam and
use only the center portion. The power efficiency then trades off directly with the desired flatness
of illumination: If an illumination flatness of 5% is required over a certain area, only 5% of the
incident beam power can actually be used. It has long been desirable in laser physics to be able to
efficiently generate a laser beam with a uniform cross section. Although many ingenious solutions
have been proposed, the few that have been implemented generally work only over the first 1/e
field points of the original Gaussian beam, and commonly suffer from poor flatness, severe
diffraction effects, and distortion of the wavefront quality of the apodized beam. In addition, many
solutions, including diffractive optics, create a beam which attains uniform intensity in one plane
in space, but then diverges and distorts away from that plane.
As part of the design of DEMON II, the creation of “flat-top” beams was studied. This was
germane not only to DEMON II, but also to ongoing work in deep-UV lithography. A new insight
was obtained after a review of historical efforts in this field. A two-element telescope with
transmissive optical elements was designed that produces a highly efficient flat-top laser beam
with the capability of propagating for several meters with little distortion and diffraction-limited
wavefront quality. The Gaussian-beam-to-flat-top converter utilizes a convex aspheric lens to
introduce aberrations into the beam, redistributing the laser power from a particular incident
Gaussian profile to the desired flat-top profile with a rapid-intensity roll-off at the edge. A second
aspheric optic recollimates the aberrated beam, restoring the wavefront quality and allowing it to
propagate for long distances without spreading. As a result, the central 60% of the output power
will be uniform in intensity to 2%, and 99.7% of the incident laser beam power is used in the
output apodized beam. The roll-off of the intensity profile was carefully crafted to minimize
diffraction effects from the edge of the beam during propagation. Although the input and output
beam dimensions are fixed for a given apodizer, it was discovered that a single apodizer could be
used from the deep UV into the far IR with only a simple focus adjustment.

Fabrication of such aspheric elements has long been very difficult and costly. Recently, new
computer controlled polishing technology has become available which can make the fabrication of
such aspheric surfaces routine. Working closely with the vendor who developed these fabrication
capabilities has allowed the DEMON II design team to build such an apodizer and to demonstrate
that it works. Figure 9 shows an example of input and output intensity profiles (not showing the
roll-off) measured using the apodizer. A second design will achieve tighter specifications through
the use of more sophisticated optical testing devices (computer-generated holograms) during
fabrication. This apodizer represents a real step forward in the area of laser illumination control,
and many potential applications in a variety of areas have already surfaced.
 Phase-conjugate readout
As described in the previous sections on tester platforms, the need for both high density and
excellent imaging requires an expensive short-focal-length lens system corrected for all
aberrations (especially distortion) over a large field, as well as a storage material of high optical
quality. Several authors have proposed bypassing these requirements by using phase-conjugate
readout of the volume holograms. After the object beam is recorded from the SLM with a
reference beam, the hologram is reconstructed with a phase-conjugate (time reversed copy) of the
original reference beam. The diffracted wavefront then retraces the path of the incoming object
beam in reverse, canceling out any accumulated phase errors. This should allow data pages to be
retrieved with high fidelity with a low-performance lens, from storage materials fabricated as
multimode fibers, or even without imaging lenses for an extremely compact system.
Most researchers have relied on the visual quality of retrieved images or detection of isolated fine
structure in resolution targets as proof that phase-conjugate retrieval provides high image fidelity.
This, however, is no guarantee that the retrieved data pages will be correctly received by the
detector array. In fact, the BER of pixel-matched holograms can be used as an extremely sensitive
measure of the conjugation fidelity of volume holograms. Any errors in rotation, focus, x-y
registration, magnification, or residual aberrations will rapidly increase the measured bit-error rate
(BER) for the data page. Using the pixel-matched optics in both the DEMON I platform and the
PRISM tester, we have implemented low-BER phase-conjugate readout of large data pages. On
the PRISM tester, phase conjugation allowed the readout of megapel pages through much smaller
apertures than in the original megapel experiment mentioned above, which was performed without
Figure 9:
A pair of optical elements with aspheric surfaces
distributes the power from an input beam with a
Gaussian profile, resulting in an output beam of
uniform intensity within a given region.
phase conjugation. This demonstrates a thirtyfold increase in areal density per hologram.

Figure 10 shows a simplified diagram of the PRISM tester, modified for this phase-conjugate
experiment. The Fourier lenses were removed, and the object beam was focused by a lens through
Figure 10:
Modified IBM PRISM test stand, used to implement
a pixel-matched phase-conjugate readout of data
pages containing 1024 x 1024 pixels, preented to the
system on a fixed mask.
the megapel mask onto a mirror placed halfway between the mask and CCD. After deflection by
this mirror, the object beam was collected by a second lens, forming an image of the mask. Here
an Fe-doped LiNbO3 crystal was placed to store a hologram in the 90-degree geometry. After
passing through the crystal, the polarization of the reference beam was rotated and the beam was
focused into a self-pumped phaseconjugate mirror using a properly oriented, nominally undoped
BaTiO3 crystal. In such a configuration, the input beam is directed through the BaTiO 3 crystal and
into the far corner, creating random backscattering throughout the crystal. It turns out that counter-
propagating beams (one scattered upon input to the crystal, one reflected from the back face) are
preferentially amplified by the recording of real-time holograms, creating the two “pump” waves
for a four-wave-mixing process. Since momentum (or wave vector) must be conserved among
four beams (energy is already conserved because all four wavelengths are identical), and since the
two “pump” beams are already counter-propagating, the output beam generated by this process
must be the phase-conjugate to the input beam.
The crystal axes of the LiNbO 3 were oriented such that the return beam from the phase-conjugate
mirror wrote the hologram, and the strong incoming reference beam was used for subsequent
readout. (Although both mutually phase-conjugate reference beams were present in the LiNbO 3
during recording, only the beam returning from the phase-conjugate mirror wrote a hologram
because of the orientation of the LiNbO3 crystal axes. For readout, the phase-conjugate mirror was
blocked, and the incoming reference beam read this hologram, reconstructing a phase-conjugate
object beam.) By turning the mirror by 90 degrees, this phase-conjugate object beam was
deflected to strike the pixel-matched CCD camera. We were able to store and retrieve a megapel
hologram with only 477 errors (BER = 5 x 10-4) after applying a single global threshold. The
experiment was repeated with a square aperture of 2.4 mm on a side placed in the object beam at
the LiNbO3 crystal, resulting in 670 errors. Even with the large spacing between SLM and CCD,
this is already an areal density of 0.18 bits per mm2 per hologram. In contrast, without phase-
conjugate readout, an aperture of 14 mm 3 14 mm was needed to produce low BERs with the
custom optics. The use of phase conjugate readout allowed mapping of SLM pixels to detector
pixels over data pages of 1024 pixels x 1024 pixels without the custom imaging optics, and
provided an improvement in areal density (as measured at the entrance aperture of the storage
material) of more than 30.
In a second experiment, we modified the DEMON I platform in an analogous manner, using a

BaTiO3 crystal for phase conjugation and LiNbO3 for recording data bearing holograms of 320
pixels x 240 pixels. To demonstrate the phase-conjugation properties, the two retrieved pages of
Figure 11 illustrate the results of passing the object beam through a phase aberrator (a 1-mm-thick
plastic plate). Figure 11(a) shows the data page with only one pass through the plastic plate,
demonstrating conventional, non-phase-conjugate readout, while Figure 11(b) demonstrates
phase-conjugate readout, where the object beam passes through the plate once during hologram
storage and then again upon readout with the phase-conjugate reference beam, correcting the
phase aberrations.
One of the practical issues affecting the use of phase conjugate readout is the need to multiplex the
reference beam in order to attain meaningful capacities. Instead of the single pair of reference
beams shown in Figure 10, a practical system would require as many as a thousand pairs of
reference-beam angles. If the two reference beams are not true phase-conjugate pairs, the
differences between them will distort the resulting reconstructed data page. It is not yet clear how
a practical system would be able to guarantee this phase-conjugation relationship among many
reference beams.
Having discussed the optical components that imprint and detect information, we move to a
Portions of data pages holographically reconstructed through a phase aberration (a) without phase-
conjugate readout (BER: 5 x 10 -2); (b) with phase-conjugate readout (BER < 10 -5), thus canceling out
accumulated phase errors.
discussion of coding and signal processing, and the best possible use of these components to
record and retrieve digital data from a holographic data storage system.

Coding and signal processing
In a data-storage system, the goal of coding and signal processing is to reduce the BER to a
sufficiently low level while achieving such important figures of merit as high density and high
data rate. This is accomplished by stressing the physical components of the system well beyond
the point, at which the channel is error-free, and then introducing coding and signal processing
schemes to reduce the BER to levels acceptable to users. Although the system retrieves raw data
from the storage device with many errors (a high raw BER), the coding and signal processing
ensures that the user data are delivered with an acceptably low level of error (a low user BER).
Coding and signal processing can involve several qualitatively distinct elements. The cycle of user
data from input to output can include interleaving, error correction- code (ECC) and modulation
encoding, signal preprocessing, data storage in the holographic system, hologram retrieval, signal
post-processing, binary detection, and decoding of the interleaved ECC.
The ECC encoder adds redundancy to the data in order to provide protection from various noise
sources. The ECC-encoded data are then passed on to a modulation encoder which adapts the data
to the channel: It manipulates the data into a form less likely to be corrupted by channel errors and
more easily detected at the channel output. The modulated data are then input to the SLM and
stored in the recording medium. On the retrieving side, the CCD returns pseudo-analog data
values (typically camera count values of eight bits) which must be transformed back into digital
data (typically one bit per pixel). The first step in this process is a post-processing step, called
equalization, which attempts to undo distortions created in the recording process, still in the
pseudo-analog domain. Then the array of pseudo-analog values is converted to an array of binary
digital data via a detection scheme. The array of digital data is then passed first to the modulation
decoder, which performs the inverse operation to modulation encoding, and then to the ECC
decoder. In the next subsections, we discuss several sources of noise and distortion and indicate
how the various coding and signal-processing elements can help in dealing with these problems.

 Binary detection
The simplest detection scheme is threshold detection, in which a threshold T is chosen: Any CCD
pixel with intensity above T is declared a 1, while those below T are assigned to class 0. However,
it is not at all obvious how to choose a threshold, especially in the presence of spatial variations in
intensity, and so threshold detection may perform poorly. The following is an alternative.
Within a sufficiently small region of the detector array, there is not much variation in pixel
intensity. If the page is divided into several such small regions, and within each region the data
patterns are balanced (i.e., have an equal number of 0s and 1s), detection can be accomplished
without using a threshold. For instance, in sorting detection, letting N denote the number of pixels
in a region, one declares the N/ 2 pixels with highest intensity to be 1s and those remaining to be
0s. This balanced condition can be guaranteed by a modulation code which encodes arbitrary data
patterns into codewords represented as balanced arrays. Thus, sorting detection combined with
balanced modulation coding provides a means to obviate the inaccuracies inherent in threshold
detection. The price that is paid here is that in order to satisfy the coding constraint (forcing the
number of 0s and 1s to be equal), each block of N pixels now represents only M bits of data. Since
M is typically less than N, the capacity improvement provided by the code must exceed the code
rate, r= M/N. For example, for N = 8, there are 70 ways to combine eight pixels such that exactly
four are 1 and four are 0. Consequently, we can store six bits of data (64 different bit sequences)
for a code rate of 75%. The code must then produce a >33% increase in the number of holographic
pages stored, in order to increase the total capacity of the system in bits.
One problem with this scheme is that the array detected by sorting may not be a valid codeword
for the modulation code; in this case, one must have a procedure which transforms balanced arrays
into valid code words. This is not much of a problem when most balanced arrays of size N are
code words, but for other codes this process can introduce serious errors. A more complex but
more accurate scheme than sorting is correlation detection, as proposed in. In this scheme, the
detector chooses the codeword that achieves maximum correlation with the array of received pixel
intensities. In the context of the 6:8 code described above, 64 correlations are computed for each
code block, avoiding the six combinations of four 1 and four 0 pixels that are not used by the code
but which might be chosen by a sorting algorithm.
 Interpixel interference
Interpixel interference is the phenomenon in which intensity at one particular pixel contaminates
data at nearby pixels. Physically, this arises from optical diffraction or aberrations in the imaging
system. The extent of interpixel interference can be quantified by the point-spread function,
sometimes called a PSF filter. If the channel is linear and the PSF filter is known, the interpixel
interference can be represented as a convolution with the original (encoded) data pattern and then
“undone” in the equalization step via a filter inverse to the PSF filter (appropriately called
deconvolution).
Deconvolution has the advantage that it incurs no capacity overhead (code rate of 100%).
However, it suffers from mismatch in the channel model (the physics of the intensity detection
makes the channel nonlinear), inaccuracies in estimation of the PSF, and enhancement
of random noise. An alternative approach to combating interpixel interference is to forbid certain
patterns of high spatial frequency via a modulation code. According to the model in, for certain
realistic and relatively optimal choices of system parameters (in particular at the Nyquist aperture
described above), if one forbids a 1 surrounded by four 0s (in its four neighbors on the cardinal
points of the compass), areal density can be improved provided that the modulation code has a rate

.0.83. Such a code at rate 8:9 = 0.888 . . . is described in; in fact, describes such codes of much
higher rate, but at the expense of increased complexity.
A code that forbids a pattern of high spatial frequency (or, more generally, a collection of such
patterns of rapidly varying 0 and 1 pixels) is called a low-pass code. Such codes constrain the
allowed pages to have limited high spatial frequency content. A general scheme for designing
such codes is given in, via a strip encoding method in which each data page is encoded, from top
to bottom, in narrow horizontal pixel strips. The constraint is satisfied both along the strip and
between neighboring strips. Codes that simultaneously satisfy both a constant-weight constraint
and a low-pass constraint are given in.

 Error correction
In contrast to modulation codes, which introduce a distributed redundancy in order to improve
binary detection of pseudo-analog intensities, error correction incorporates explicit redundancy in
order to identify decoded bit errors. An ECC code receives a sequence of decoded data
(containing both user and redundant bits) with an unacceptably high raw BER, and uses the
redundant bits to correct errors in the user bits and reduce the output user BER to a tolerable level
(typically, less than 10-12). The simplest and best-known error correction scheme is parity
checking, in which bit errors are identified because they change the number of 1s in a given block
from odd to even, for instance. Most of the work on ECC for holographic storage has focused on
more powerful Reed–Solomon (RS) codes. These codes have been used successfully in a wide
variety of applications for two reasons: 1) They have very strong error-correction power relative
to the required redundancy, and 2) their algebraic structure facilitates the design and
implementation of fast, low-complexity decoding algorithms. As a result, there are many
commercially available RS chips.
In a straightforward implementation of an ECC, such as an RS code, each byte would be written

into a small array (say 2 times 4 for 8-bit bytes), and the bytes in a codeword would simply be
rastered across the page. There might be approximately 250 bytes per codeword. If the errors were
independent from pixel to pixel and identically distributed across the page, this would work well.
However, experimental evidence shows that the errors are neither independent nor identically
distributed. For example, interpixel interference can cause an error event to affect a localized
cluster of pixels, perhaps larger than a single byte. And imperfections in the physical components
can cause the raw BER to vary dramatically across the page (typically, the raw BER is
significantly higher near the edges of the page).
Assume for simplicity that our choice of ECC can correct at most two byte errors per codeword. If
the codewords are interleaved so that any cluster error can contaminate at most two bytes in each
codeword, the cluster error will not defeat the error-correcting power of the code. Interleaving
schemes such as this have been studied extensively for one-dimensional applications (for which
cluster errors are known as burst errors). However, relatively little work has been done on
interleaving schemes for multidimensional applications such as holographic recording. One recent
exception is a class of sophisticated interleaving schemes for correcting multidimensional cluster
errors developed in.
For certain sources of error, it is reasonable to assume that the raw-BER distribution is fixed from
hologram to hologram. Thus, the raw-BER distribution across the page can be accurately
estimated from test patterns. Using this information, codewords can then be interleaved in such a
way that not too many pixels with high raw BER can lie in the same codeword (thereby lowering
the probability of decoder failure or miscorrection). This technique, known as matched
interleaving, can yield a significant improvement in user BER.

 Predistortion
The techniques we have described above are variations on existing coding and signal-processing
methods from conventional data-storage technologies. In addition, a novel preprocessing
technique unique to holographic data storage has been developed at IBM Almaden. This
technique, called “predistortion”, works by individually manipulating the recording exposure of
each pixel on the SLM, either through control of exposure time or by relative pixel transmission
(analog brightness level on the SLM). Deterministic variations among the ON pixels, such as
those created by fixed-pattern noise, nonuniformity in the illuminated object beam, and even
interpixel crosstalk, can be suppressed (thus decreasing BER). Many of the spatial variations to be
removed are present in an image transmitted with low power from the SLM directly to the
detector array. Once the particular pattern of nonuniform brightness levels is obtained, the
recording exposure for each pixel is simply calculated from the ratio between its current
brightness value and the desired pixel brightness. At low density, raw-BER improvements of more
than 15 orders of magnitude are
possible. More significantly, at high
density, interpixel crosstalk (which is
deterministic once each data page is
encoded) can be suppressed and raw
BER improved from 10-4 to 10-12 .
Figure 12 shows this experimental
result, implemented on the DEMON I
platform with a square aperture of 2.8
mm x 2.8 mm placed at the Fourier
transform plane of the imaging optics.
Another use of the predistortion
technique is to increase the contrast
between the 1 and 0 pixel states
provided by the SLM. By using
interferometric subtraction while
recording the hologram, the amount
of light received at the 0 detector
pixels can be reduced.
 Gray scale
The previous sections have shown
that the coding introduced to maintain
acceptable BER comes with an
unavoidable overhead cost, resulting
in somewhat less than one bit per
pixel. The predistortion technique
described in the previous section
Intensity histogram for high-areal-density holograms (a) makes it possible to record data pages
before and (b) after applying the predistortion technique. containing gray scale. Since we record
Before, interpixel crosstalk broadens the brightness and detect more than two brightness
distribution; after, these deterministic variations are
reduced, improving the BER of the system

levels per pixel, it is possible to have more than one bit of data per pixel. The histogram of a
hologram with six gray-scale levels made possible by the predistortion technique is shown in
Figure 13. To encode and decode these gray-scale data pages, we also developed several local-
thresholding methods and balanced modulation codes.
If pixels take one of g brightness levels, each pixel can convey log2 g bits of data. The total
amount of stored information per page has increased, so gray-scale encoding appears to produce a
straightforward improvement in both capacity and readout rate. However, gray scale also divides
the system’s signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) into g - 1 part, one for each transition between
brightness levels. Because total SNR depends on the number of holograms, dividing the SNR for
gray scale (while requiring the same error rate) leads to a reduction in the number of holograms
that can be stored. The gain in bits per pixel must then outweigh this reduction in stored
holograms to increase the total capacity in bits.
Histogram of a hologram with six-scale levels recorded

on the DEMON I platform using the predistortion
technique.

 Capacity estimation
To quantify the overall storage capacity of different grayscale encoding options, we developed an
experimental capacity-estimation technique. In this technique, the dependence of raw BER on
readout power is first measured experimentally. A typical curve is shown in Figure 14(a). The
capacity-estimation technique then produces the relationship between M, the number of holograms
that can be stored, and raw BER [Figure 14(b)]. Without the capacity-estimation technique,
producing Figure 14(b) would require an exhaustive series of multiple hologram experiments.
In general, as the raw BER of the system increases, the number of holograms, M, increases slowly.
In order to maintain a low user BER (say, 10212) as this raw- BER operating point increases, the
redundancy of the ECC code must increase. Thus, while the number of holograms increases, the
ECC code rate decreases. These two opposing trends create an “optimal” raw BER, at which the
user capacity is maximized. For the Reed–Solomon ECC codes we commonly use, this optimal
raw BER is approximately 1023. By computing these maximum capacities for binary data pages
and grayscale data pages from g = 2 to g = 6, we were able to show that gray-scale holographic
data pages provide an advantage over binary encoding in both capacity and readout rate. The use
of three gray levels offered a 30% increase in both capacity and readout rate over conventional
binary data pages.

Associative retrieval
As mentioned in the Introduction, volume holographic data storage conventionally implies that
data imprinted on an object beam will be stored volumetrically [Figure 15(a)], to be read out at
some later time by illumination with an addressing reference beam [Figure 15(b)]. However, the
same hologram (the interference pattern between a reference beam and a data-bearing object
beam) can also be illuminated by the object beam [Figure 15(c)]. This reconstructs all of the
angle-multiplexed reference beams that were used to record data pages into the volume. The
amount of power diffracted into each “output” beam is proportional to the 2D cross-correlation
between the input data page (being displayed on the SLM) and the stored data page (previously
recorded with that particular reference beam). Each set of output beams can be focused onto a
detector array, so that each beam forms
its own correlation “peak.” Because
both the input and output lenses perform
a two-dimensional Fourier transform in
spatial coordinates, the optical system is
essentially multiplying the Fourier
transforms of the search page and each
data page and then taking the Fourier
transform of this product (thus
implementing the convolution theorem
optically). Because of the volume nature
of the hologram, only a single slice
through the 2D correlation function is
produced (the other dimension has been
“used” already, providing the ability to
correlate against multiple templates
simultaneously).
Capacity-estimation technique begins with (a) a

simple experimental measurement of raw BER of a
few holograms as a function of the reconstructed
intensity, and produces (b) an estimation of the
number of holograms that could be superimposed as
a function of the raw BER that the system is asked to
maintain. Without this technique, one would need to
perform repeated multiple-hologram experiments to
obtain these data.

Holographic data storage system: (a) two coherent beams,
one carrying a page of information, interfere within a
photosensitive material to record a hologram. (b)
Illuminating the hologram with the reference beam
reconstructs a weak copy of the original information-
bearing beam for capture with a detector array. (c)
Illuminating multiple stored holograms with a new page
of search information reconstructs all of the reference
beams, computing in parallel the correlation between the
search data and each of the stored pages.
The center of each correlation peak represents the

2D inner product (the simple overlap) between the
input page being presented to the system and the
associated stored page. If the patterns which
compose these pages correspond to the various
data fields of a database, and each stored page
represents a data record, the optical correlation
process has just simultaneously compared the
entire database against the search argument . This
parallelism gives content-addressable holographic
data storage an inherent speed advantage over a
conventional serial search, especially for large
databases. For instance, if an un-indexed
conventional “retrieve-from-disk-and compare”
software-based database is limited only by
sustained hard-disk readout rate (25 MB/s), a
search over one million 1 KB records would take
~40 s. In comparison, with off-the-shelf, video-
rate SLM and CCD technology, an appropriately
designed holographic system could search the
same records in ~30 ms — a 1200x improvement.
Custom components could enable 1000 or more
parallel searches per second.
For this optical correlation process to represent a database search, the spatial patterns of bright
(ON) pixels on the holographic data pages must somehow represent the digital data from fixed-
length database fields. The SLM is divided into separate regions, each dedicated to a particular
fixed-length field of the database. For example, a two-bit data field might be encoded by four
blocks of pixels at a particular point within the SLM page. Such an encoding implements an exact
search through the database. By thresholding the detected optical signal (essentially an analog
quantity), any matching records are identified. Thresholding becomes commensurately more
difficult, however, when many fields are being searched simultaneously. And when the threshold
does not work correctly, completely unrelated records are identified as matches because near
matches between pixel block patterns do not represent near matches in encoded data value.

We have developed a novel data-
encoding method which allows
similarity or fuzzy searching, by
encoding similar data values into
similar pixel block patterns. As shown
in Figure 16(a), data values are
encoded by the position of a block of
ON pixels within a vertical track,
creating a “slider” (like the control
found on a stereo’s graphic equalizer,
for instance). As an example, the data
value 128 might be encoded as a pixel
block of height hs, centered within a
column of 256 pixels. During the
search for data values near 128, the
partial overlap between the input
slider block [Figure 16(b)] and the
stored slider block causes the
resulting correlation peak to indicate
the similarity between the input query
and the stored data. The holographic
content-addressable system is
optically measuring the inner product
between an input data page
(containing a pixel block at some
position along this slider column), and
each stored page (possibly containing
a pixel block at the same position in
the same slider column). This is the
same result that would be produced
by cutting holes at nearly the same spot on two sheets of black cardboard, aligning their edges,
and then holding them up to a light. The holographic system is merely condensing this partial
overlap into a single intensity result, and is performing the same test on a large number of
holograms simultaneously.
More compact data representations can be realized by combining both fuzzy and exact search
Data encoding for fuzzy searching: (a) when storing a encodings. The higher-order bits
hologram, a small block of SLM pixels are turned ON at same would be encoded compactly with
location within a predefined rectangular portion (“slider” binary type encoding, while the low-
track) of the data page. (b) for correlation readout, an input order bits remained available for fuzzy
query is encoded as a similar block within the same track. (c) searching. This trades search
any offset between the two blocks causes the brightness of the flexibility for more capacity (in terms
correlation peak to decrease. By encoding data values with the of fields per database record). By
center position of the similarity between data records and the adding a correlation camera to the
input query, implementing fuzzy searching. DEMON I platform, we
experimentally demonstrated this
fuzzy search encoding. Figure 16(c) shows results from a search of a single fuzzy-encoded data
field as the input data value approached and then exceeded the stored value. The amplitude
response (the square root of measured power as a function of the relative position of the input
slider block) formed a triangularly shaped function. The correlation of identical rectangles creates
the triangle; the signals add in field amplitude yet are detected in intensity; thus, this triangle

shows up after taking the square root of the measured signals. With this fuzzy encoding technique,
the analog nature of the optical output becomes an enabling feature instead of a drawback.
To demonstrate high-fidelity parallel searching of a holographic content-addressable memory, we

stored a small multimedia database in our modified DEMON I system. Each hologram represented
one record from an IBM query-by-image-content (QBIC) database. In the QBIC system, searches
are performed across feature vectors previously extracted from the images, rather than on the
images themselves. Each record included several alphanumeric fields (such as image description
and image number) encoded for exact searches, and 64 fuzzy sliders containing the color
histogram information (percentage of each given color within the associated image). A separate
portion of the SLM page, pixel-matched onto a CCD detector for conventional address-based
holographic readout, was encoded with the binary data for the small binary image. One hundred
holograms were recorded in a 90-degree-geometry LiNbO3 crystal, with the reference angles
chosen so that each reference beam was focused to a unique portion of the correlation camera.
Each search, initiated by a user query, ran under computer control, including display of the
appropriate patterns, detection of the correlation peaks (averaging eight successive measurements
to reduce detector noise), calibration by hologram strength, identification of the eight highest
correlation scores, mapping of correlation bins to reference-beam angle, address-based recall of
these eight holograms, decoding of the pixel-matched data pages, and, finally, display of the
binary images on the computer monitor. The optical readout portion occupied only 0.25 s of the
total 5-s cycle time. To find images based on color similarity, the 64 sliders were used to input the
color histogram information for the upper left image in Figure 17(a). The slider patterns for this
color histogram were input to the system on the SLM, resulting in 100 reconstructed reference
beams. After detection, calibration, and ranking of these 100 correlation peaks, the reference
beams for the brightest eight were input to the system again, resulting in eight detected data pages
and thus eight decoded binary images. Figure 17(a) shows the first four of these images, indicating
that the holographic search process found these images to be those which most closely matched
the color histogram query. Figure 17(b) quantifies the search fidelity by plotting the detected
correlation peak intensity as a function of the overlap between the object-beam search patterns.
Perfect system performance would result in a smooth monotonic curve; however, noise in the real
system introduces deviations away from this curve. As expected, the feature vector for the left-
hand image correlated strongly with itself, but the system was also able to correctly identify the
images with the highest cross-correlation.
These sliders could also be used to select images by color distribution. Figures 17(c) and 17(d)
correspond to a search for images containing 20% white and 20% light gray. Although several
images were ranked slightly higher than they deserved (red circle), the system performance was
impressive, considering that the background “dark” signal was twice as large as the signal. In
Figures 17(e) and 17(f), the alphanumeric description field was used to search for the keyword
shore. Note that because many characters are involved, both the expected and measured scores are
large. However, we obtained similar results for exact search arguments as small as a single
character.
With the fuzzy coding techniques we have introduced, volume holographic content-addressable
data storage is an attractive method for rapidly searching vast databases with complex queries.
Areas of current investigation include implementing system architectures which support many
thousands of simultaneously searched records, and quantifying the capacity– reliability tradeoffs.

Recording materials
Materials and media requirements for holographic data storage
Thus far, we have discussed the effects of the hardware, and of coding and signal processing, on
the performance of holographic data storage systems. Desirable parameters described so far
include storage capacity, data input and output rates, stability of stored data, and device
compactness, all of which must be delivered at a specified (very low) user BER. To a large extent,
the possibility of delivering such a system is limited by the properties of the materials available as
storage media. The connections between materials properties and system performance are
complex, and many tradeoffs are possible in adapting a given material to yield the best results.
Here we attempt to outline in a general way the desirable properties for a holographic storage
medium and give examples of some promising materials.
Properties of foremost importance for holographic storage media can be broadly characterized as
“optical quality,” “recording properties,” and “stability.” These directly affect the data density and
capacity that can be achieved, the data rates for input and output, and the BER.
As mentioned above, for highest density at low BER, the imaging of the input data from the SLM
to the detector must be nearly perfect, so that each data pixel is read cleanly by the detector. The
recording medium itself is part of the imaging system and must exhibit the same high degree of
perfection. Furthermore, if the medium is moved to access different areas with the readout beam,
this motion must not compromise the imaging performance. Thus, very high standards of optical
homogeneity and fabrication must be maintained over the full area of the storage medium. With
sufficient materials development effort and care in fabrication, the necessary optical quality has
been achieved for both inorganic photorefractive crystals and organic photopolymer media. As
discussed above, phase-conjugate readout could ultimately relax these requirements.
A more microscopic aspect of optical quality is intrinsic light scattering of the material. The
detector noise floor produced by scattering of the readout beam imposes a fundamental minimum
on the efficiency of a stored data hologram, and thus on the storage density and rate of data
readout [38]. Measurements on the PRISM tester have shown that, in general, the best organic
media have a higher scattering level than inorganic crystals, by about a factor of 100 or more.
Because holography is a volume storage method, the capacity of a holographic storage system
tends to increase as the thickness of the medium increases, since greater thickness implies the
ability to store more independent diffraction gratings with higher selectivity in reading out
individual data pages without crosstalk from other pages stored in the same volume. For the
storage densities necessary to make holography a competitive storage technology, a media
thickness of at least a few millimeters is highly desirable. In some cases, particularly for organic
materials, it has proven difficult to maintain the necessary optical quality while scaling up the
thickness, while in other cases thickness is limited by the physics and chemistry of the recording
process.
Holographic recording properties are characterized in terms of sensitivity and dynamic range.
Sensitivity refers to the extent of refractive index modulation produced per unit exposure (energy
per unit area). Diffraction efficiency (and thus the readout signal) is proportional to the square of
the index modulation times the thickness. Thus, recording sensitivity is commonly expressed in
terms of the square root of diffraction efficiency,

S2 = (1/2)/(Iιt) (1)
Where I is the total intensity, is the medium thickness, and t is the exposure time; this form of
sensitivity is usually given in units of cm/J. Since not all materials used are the same thickness, it
is a more useful comparison to define a modified sensitivity given by the usual sensitivity times
the thickness:
S'2 = S2 x ι (2)

This quantity has units of cm2/J and can be thought of as the inverse of the writing fluency
required to produce a standard signal level. The unprimed variable, S2, might be used to convey
the potential properties of a storage material, given that the particular sample under test is
extremely thin; in contrast, S'2 quantifies the ability of a specific sample to respond to a recording
exposure.
For high output data rate, one must read holograms with many pixels per page in a reasonably
short time. To read a megapixel hologram in about 1 ms with reasonable laser power and to have
enough signal at the detector for low error rate, a diffraction efficiency around  = 3 x 10-5 is
required. To write such a hologram in 1 ms, to achieve input and output data rates of 1 Gb/s, the
sensitivity for this example must be at least S'2 =20 cm2/J
The term dynamic range refers to the total response of the medium when it is divided up among
many holograms multiplexed in a common volume of material; it is often parameterized as a
quantity known as M# (pronounced “M-number” [39]), where
M# = Σ 1/2
(3)
and the sum is over the M holograms in one location. The M# also describes the scaling of
diffraction efficiency as M is increased, i.e,
 = (M#/M) 2 (4)
Dynamic range has a strong impact on the data storage density that can be achieved. For example,
to reach a density of 100 bits/mm2 (64 Gb/in.2) with megapixel data pages, a target diffraction
efficiency of 3 x 10-5, and area at the medium of 0.1 cm2 would require M# = 5, a value that is
barely achievable with known recording materials under exposure conditions appropriate for
recording high fidelity data holograms.

Three experimental search results from an all-holographic search-and-retrieve engine, operating on a database
of 100 feature vectors from the IBM Query-by-image-content (QBIC) image database. (a) The best four images
found when the search query was the color feature vector for the leftmost image. (b) Measured correlation score
(ratio of the detected signal to the “dark” calibration value), for each of the 100 database records, as a function
of the expected response (number of SLM pixels in common between the input and each stored page). (c)The
best four images found when the color sliders for 20% white and 20% light grey were input. (d) Measured vs.
expected correlation score. (e) The best four images found when searching for the key word shore, encoded into
five characters with three nonbinary subfields per character. (f) Measured vs. expected correlation score.

Stability is a desirable property for any data storage system. In the case of holographic storage, the
response of the recording medium, which converts the optical interference pattern to a refractive
index pattern (the hologram), is generally linear in light intensity and lacks the response threshold
found in bistable storage media such as magnetic films. In the case of write-once-read many
(WORM) media such as photopolymers, the material response is irreversible; once the material
has been fully exposed, further optical irradiation produces no further response, and the data can
be interrogated by the readout beam without erasing it or distorting it. Much basic research in
holographic storage has been performed using photorefractive crystals as storage media. Of these
crystals, Fe-doped lithium niobate has been the workhorse. Its sensitivity is sufficient for
demonstration purposes, but lacks a factor of 100 for practical application. Since photo refractives
are reversible materials, they suggest the possibility of a rewritable holographic storage medium.
However, because they are linear and reversible, they are subject to erasure during readout.
Several schemes have been investigated for stabilizing or “fixing” the recording so that the data
can be read without erasure. One scheme that does this without compromising the ability to erase
the data, known as two-color recording, has received a good deal of attention recently. Recording
is enabled by simultaneous irradiation of the crystal by a gating beam of different wavelength than
the usual object and reference beams. In the absence of the gating wavelength, the data can be
read without causing erasure. More details are given in the next section.
Stability in the dark over long periods is also an issue; organic photopolymer materials are often
subject to aging processes caused by residual reactive species left in the material after recording or
by stresses built up in the material during recording. Erasure may occur because of residual
thermal diffusion of the molecules which record the hologram. Index modulation in photo
refractives results from a space charge that is built up by the optical excitation and migration of
mobile charge carriers. Stability in the dark depends on the trapping of these carriers with trap
energies that are not thermally accessible at room temperature. Many kinds of materials have been
investigated as holographic storage media. Table 1 is a comparison of the properties of several
that are among the best available as data storage media. Five materials are compared on the basis
of optical imaging quality, scattered light level, hologram fidelity, sensitivity, M#, stability, and
available thickness. These include the much-studied Fe-doped lithium niobate, two-color
recording in reduced stoichiometric lithium niobate [41], and three organic materials that were
chosen to typify the range of properties available from various organic materials systems.
Photopolymers are very promising because of their high sensitivity and dynamic range; they are
discussed in more detail below. Phenanthrenequinonedoped polymethylmethacrylate (PQ/PMMA)

has excellent optical quality and is based on a photoreaction between the dopant and polymer
followed by diffusion of unreacted chromophore; this requires a long thermal treatment, which is a
disadvantage from a system perspective. Finally, photo-addressable polymers are also promising
but are still at an early stage of development.

 Summary of polymer work
Polymer materials are important candidates for holographic storage media. They promise to be
inexpensive to manufacture while offering a wide variety of possible recording mechanisms and
materials systems. The opportunity for fruitful development of polymer holographic media is thus
very broad, and a variety of approaches to using organic materials for holography have been
pursued, including organic photorefractive materials, triplet-sensitized photo chromic systems,
photo-addressable polymers, and materials which produce index modulation via material
diffusion. Of the latter class, PQ/PMMA is a polymer glass in which a photoreaction binds the
phenanthrenequinone chromophore to the PMMA. During a thermal treatment, typically for about
24 hours, unbound PQ diffuses, and the resulting concentration gradients are frozen in place by a
final uniform illumination that binds the remaining unreacted chromophore to the PMMA
backbone, leading to a fixed hologram. This material has the excellent optical quality of the
PMMA matrix, it is available in reasonable thickness, and its sensitivity, while somewhat low, is
reasonably good. However, the current need for lengthy thermal treatment makes it unacceptable
for most storage applications.
The diffusion-driven photopolymer systems offer very high sensitivity and need no such post
exposure processing. The basic mechanism is a photosensitized polymerization, coupled with
diffusion of monomer and other components of the material formulation under influence of the
resulting concentration gradients. The medium is usually partially prepolymerized to produce a
gel-like matrix, allowing rapid diffusion at room temperature. Refractive index modulation and
recording of holograms result from both the density change and the difference in polarizability of
the polymerized material. The magnitude of this refractive index modulation can be very high,
resulting in a high dynamic range. For simple plane-wave holograms, an M# as high as 42 has
been observed. For digital data holograms, the contrast of the interference pattern between object
and reference beams is lower than in the plane-wave case and the recording conditions do not
produce as large an index modulation. Even so, the M# observed for digital holograms on the
PRISM materials tester is around 1.5, one of the highest yet observed; this value can undoubtedly
be improved by optimization of the recording conditions.
The recording mechanism for photopolymers also leads to some disadvantages, including the
shrinkage of the material with polymerization and the possibility of nonlinear response. Both of
these distort the reconstructed holograms and thus cause errors in decoding the digital data. For
some photopolymers, significant advances have been made toward eliminating these undesired
properties; for example, shrinkage has been reduced to less than 0.1% while sufficient useful
dynamic range for recording of data has been retained. There are additional problems in increasing
the thickness of these materials to the millimeter scale that is desirable for holography, and even
then the Bragg angle selectivity is not sufficient to allow enough holograms to be written in a
common volume to achieve high data density. However, through the use of nonselective
multiplexing methods, it is possible to increase the density to a competitive level. One of these
methods, known as peristrophic multiplexing, involves the rotation of the medium about an axis
normal to its plane such that the reconstructed hologram image rotates away from the detector,
allowing another hologram to be written and read. We have recently demonstrated the recording
and readout with very low error rate of 70 holograms of 256 Kb each on the PRISM tester, using a
combination of Bragg angle and peristrophic multiplexing.
Photopolymer materials have undergone rapid development and show great potential as write-
once holographic media. Because of this rapid development, there is relatively little research

addressing the issue of long-term data integrity and stability after recording. Work in this area is
ongoing.
Another class of organic materials undergoing rapid development is the photo-addressable

polymer systems [49]. These systems incorporate azo-dye chromophores that are highly optically
anisotropic and that undergo optically induced reorientation. Thus, optical irradiation produces a
large refractive index change through the birefringence induced by this reorientation process. The
index change can be stabilized by incorporating the chromophores into a polymer matrix
containing liquid crystal components. At this point, these materials lack a convenient means of
desensitization once the data have been written, so that they do not saturate and overwrite the
holograms during readout. However, the index change available via this mechanism is very large;
a recording medium of this type could have very high dynamic range, and thus the potential for
high data storage density, and perhaps be reversible, thus enabling rewritable storage.
The best of the photopolymers are promising as storage media for WORM data storage. The
photorefractive crystals have traditionally been the favorite candidates for reversible, rewritable
storage; recent work on two-color recording has shown the way to a possible solution of the
volatility of reversible media during readout. The following section describes this concept.

 Two-color or photon-gated holography
Two main schemes for providing nondestructive readout have been proposed, both in lithium
niobate, although the concepts are applicable to a broader range of materials. The first was thermal
fixing, in which a copy of the stored index gratings is made by thermally activating proton
diffusion, creating an optically stable complementary proton grating. Because of the long times
required for thermal fixing and the need to fix large blocks of data at a time, thermally fixed media
somewhat resemble reusable WORM materials. Another class of fixing process uses two
wavelengths of light. One approach uses two different wavelengths of light for recording and
reading, but for storage applications this suffers from increased crosstalk and restrictions on the
spatial frequencies that can be recorded. The most promising two-color scheme is “photon-gated”
recording in photorefractive materials, in which charge generation occurs via a two-step process.
Coherent object and reference beams at a wavelength l1 record information in the presence of
gating light at a wavelength l2 . The gating light can be incoherent or broadband, such as a white-
light source or LED. Reading is done at l1 in the absence of gating light. Depending on the
specific implementation, either the gating light acts to sensitize the material, in which case it is
desirable for the sensitivity to decay after the writing cycle, or the gating light ionizes centers in
which a temporary grating can be written at the wavelength l1 . Figure 18 shows a schematic of
energy levels comparing the two-color and one-color schemes for a photorefractive material with
localized centers in the bandgap. A very important and unique figure of merit for photon-gated
holography is the gating ratio, the ratio between the sensitivity of the material in the presence and
absence of gating light.

Schematic level diagram of the one-color and two-color
photorefractive effects. In stoichiometric lithium niobate,
level 1 is attributed to a Nb bipolaron state or Fe 2+/Fe3+ state,
level 2 to a Nbli antisite polaron, and level 3 to an Fe 3+ trap.
The single center modal for one-color recording is
appropriate for low-power continous-wave writing.
Reduced stoichiometric lithium niobate shows both one-color sensitivity in the blue-green spectral
region and two-color sensitivity for writing in the near IR and gating with blue-green light . From
this it can be seen that the gating light also produces erasure. This is a consequence of the broad
spectral features of reduced or Fe-doped lithium niobate. Considerable progress is envisaged if a
better separation of gating and erasing functions can be achieved by storing information in deeper
traps and/or using wider-bandgap materials. Figure 19 compares one-color and two-color writing
in a sample of reduced, near-stoichiometric lithium niobate to illustrate the nondestructive readout
that can be achieved. The gating ratio in this case was in excess of 5000.

Conventionally, lithium niobate is grown in the congruent melting composition, expressed by the
quantity CLi = [Li]/([Li] + [Nb]) = 48.5%, because the identical compositions of the melt and the
Typical write-read-erase curve for holographic grating in LiNbO3 crystals;
(a) One-color scheme, in which an argon ion laser at 488nm, 1 W/cm2 is used
for both writing (two beams) and reading (one beam). (b) Two-color scheme,
in which a laser diode at 852nm(4 W/cm2 total intensity) is used for writing
and an argon ion laser at 488nm, 1 W/cm2 is used for the gating step.
Nondestructive reading was done with one of the unattenuated writing beams
(2 W/cm2) and erasing with the gating light.
crystal promote high optical quality and large boules. Crystals of nominally undoped lithium
niobate, grown with a stoichiometry (SLN) of 49.7% by a special double-crucible technique, were
compared with those of the congruent composition (CLN). Strong differences were observed,

As shown in Table 2. Materials were evaluated in a plane wave geometry in which two collimated
852-nm beams from a single-frequency diode laser were incident on the sample at an external
crossing angle of 20 degrees. Gating light was provided either by an Ar1 laser at 488 nm or by
several GaN LEDs. Further details of the experimental setup were recently published.
Reduction of lithium niobate (heat treatment in an oxygen-poor atmosphere) induces a broad

visible absorption band. This band is attributed primarily to absorption by a bipolaron consisting
of an electron trapped on a regular Nb site and another trapped at a NbLi antisite, together with a
strong lattice distortion. In addition, there is some contribution to the band from residual
impurities such as Fe21. Irradiating with bluegreen light is the gating or sensitizing step, which
produces a transient absorption around 1.6 eV. This absorption is assigned to a small polaron, or
electron trapped at NbLi, produced by dissociation of the bipolaron, and is responsible for the
sensitivity at 852 nm.
As we have seen, the most important photorefractive properties for two-color holographic data
storage are the gating ratio (measuring the degree of nonvolatility), sensitivity, M# or dynamic
range, dark decay, and optical quality. Table 2 shows most of these properties for stoichiometric
and congruent compositions compared to the behavior of conventional one-color Fe-doped lithium
niobate. Photorefractive sensitivity for two-color recording in lithium niobate is linear in the
gating light intensity, Ig, only at low values of Ig because of competition between gating and
erasing. Hence, the sensitivity in terms of incident intensities Sh2 is defined similarly to that for
onecolor processes [see Equation (2)], but for a fixed and reasonably low value of Ig = 1 W/cm2.

The sensitivity in terms of absorbed power is S 1 = S2/, where a is the absorption coefficient at
the writing wavelength. In terms of this sensitivity, all samples studied, including the single
photon Fe-doped material written at 488 nm, are almost equally sensitive. This suggests that the
sensitivity is determined by the amount of light that can be absorbed at the writing wavelength. So
far, the maximum absorption of writing light that we have found in reduced SLN is 6% for
Ig = 1 W/cm2.
Summarizing the results of Table 2, the sensitivity gains for two-color recording in reduced,
nearly stoichiometric lithium niobate with respect to the congruent material are 153 for increased
stoichiometry and 203 for degree of reduction. In addition, lowering the gating wavelength from
520 nm to 400 nm gains a further factor of 10, and cooling from 208C to 08C a factor of 5.
There is an interesting difference in the behavior of one- and two-color materials with regard to
dynamic range. In a one-color material, the M# is proportional to the modulation index or fringe
visibility of the optical interference pattern, m = 2(I1I2)1/2/(I1 + I2). However, in a two-color
material, the writing light (I1 + I2) does not erase the hologram, and the M# is proportional to
(I1I2)1/2 . As a result, for object and reference beams of equal intensity, the M# is proportional to
the writing intensity. While this provides a general way of increasing the dynamic range in a two-
color material, the writing power requirements in the present material system become rather high
in order to achieve a substantial increase in M#.
Instead of amplifying the role of the intrinsic shallow levels with stoichiometry, an alternative
scheme for implementing two-color holography in lithium niobate is the introduction of two
impurity dopants. One trap, such as Mn, serves as the deep trap from which gating occurs, while a
more shallow trap, such as Fe, provides the more shallow intermediate level for gated recording.
While this scheme provides more opportunities for tuning through choice of dopants, in general it
is difficult in LiNbO3 to separate the two absorption bands enough to provide high gating ratios
and thus truly nonvolatile storage. In addition, while M# improves monotonically with writing
intensity for stoichiometric lithium niobate, with the two-trap method M# is maximized at a
particular writing intensity, thus creating an undesirable tradeoff between recording rate and
dynamic range.

Four scenarios highlighting the properties of holographic data storage: an all-solid-state memory module, which
takes advantage of the potential for short access times; two rotating-disk geometrics, with either erasable or
WORM-type media and finally, a data warehouse media. With its high volumetric density, holographic data
storage has the potential to affect all types of data storage.
Two-color, photon-gated holography provides a promising solution to the long-standing problem

of destructive readout in read/write digital holographic storage. In lithium niobate, optimization of
the sensitivity requires control over stoichiometry (or doping), degree of reduction, temperature,
gating wavelength, and gating intensity. Two-color materials differ fundamentally from one-color
materials in that the dynamic range or M# can be increased by using higher writing intensity, and
the sensitivity can be increased with higher gating intensity. Another route to increasing the M#
would be to find a material which exhibits a two-color erase process. Substantial progress has
been made in recent years in the field of two-color holography, and further progress can be
expected on this complex and challenging problem.

Outlook
Holographic data storage has several characteristics that are unlike those of any other existing
storage technologies. Most exciting, of course, is the potential for data densities and data transfer
rates exceeding those of magnetic data storage. In addition, as in all other optical data storage
methods, the density increases rapidly with decreasing laser wavelength. In contrast to surface
storage techniques such as CD-ROM, where the density is inversely proportional to the square of
the wavelength, holography is a volumetric technique, making its density proportional to one over
the third power of the wavelength. In principle, laser beams can be moved with no mechanical
components, allowing access times of the order of 10 ms, faster than any conventional disk drive
will ever be able to randomly access data. As in other optical recording schemes, and in contrast to
magnetic recording, the distances between the “head” and the media are very large, and media can
be easily removable. In addition, holographic data storage has shown the capability of rapid
parallel search through the stored data via associative retrieval.
On the other hand, holographic data storage currently suffers from the relatively high component
and integration costs faced by any emerging technology. In contrast, magnetic hard drives, also
known as direct access storage devices (DASD), are well established, with a broad knowledge
base, infrastructure, and market acceptance. Are there any scenarios conceivable for holographic
data storage, where its unique combination of technical characteristics could come to bear and
overcome the thresholds faced by any new storage technology?
Four conceivable product scenarios are shown in Figure 20. The first two scenarios use read/write
media, while the latter two are designed for WORM materials, which are much easier to develop
but must support data retention times as long as tens of years. The first scenario [Figure 20(a)]
takes advantage of rapid optical access to a stationary block of media, resulting in a random-
access time of the order of 10 ms. The capacity is limited to about 25 GB by the size of the block
of media that can be addressed by simple, inexpensive optics. Such a device could bridge the gap
between conventional semiconductor memory and DASD, providing a nonvolatile holographic
cache with an access time that is between DASD and dynamic random-access memory (DRAM).
Using the same optical components but replacing the stationary block of media with a rotating
disk results in performance characteristics similar to those of a disk drive, albeit with terabytes
(1012 bytes) of capacity per platter [Figure 20(b)]. In the CD-ROM type of embodiment [Figure
20(c)], holographic data storage takes advantage of the fact that single-exposure full-disk
replication has been demonstrated. The player for the holographic ROM is conceptually very
simple: The photodiode from a conventional ROM player is replaced by a CMOS camera chip,
and the reconstructed data page is then imaged with suitable optics onto that camera. Combining
one of the DASD-type R/W heads and possibly a number of CD-ROM-type readers, a robotic
picker, and sufficient tiles of media, a data warehouse with petabyte (1015 bytes) capacity in a
standard 19-inch rack is conceivable [Figure 20(d)]. While the access time to any of the stored
files is determined by the robotic picker and will be of the order of tens of seconds, the aggregate
sustained data rate could be enormous. In this scenario, the relatively high component cost of a
read/write holographic engine is amortized over a large volume of cheap media to obtain
competitive cost per gigabyte. Will one of these scenarios with data stored in holograms
materialize and become reality in the foreseeable future? In collaboration and competition with
a large number of scientists from around the globe, we continue to study the technical feasibility
of holographic storage and memory devices with parameters that are relevant for real-world
applications. Whether this research will one day lead to products depends on the insights that we
gain into these technical issues and how well holography can compete with established techniques

in the marketplace.

Application
Holographic Versatile Disc

An HVD (holographic Versatile Disc), a holographic storage media, is an advanced optical disc
that’s presently in the development stage. Polaroid scientist J. van Heerden was the first to come
up with the idea for holographic three-dimensional storage media in 1960. An HVD would be a
successor to today’s Blu-ray and HDDVD technologies. It can transfer data at the rate of 1 Gigabit
per second. The technology permits over 10 kilobits of data to be written and read in parallel with
a single flash. The disc will store upto 3.9 terabyte (TB) of data on a single optical disk.
Holographic data storage, a potential next generation storage technology, offers both high storage
density and fast readout rate. In this article, I discuss the physical origin of these attractive
technology features and the components and engineering required to realize them. I conclude by
describing the current state of holographic storage research and development efforts in the context
of ongoing improvement to established storage technologies.
BRIEF HISTORY
Although holography was conceived in the late 1940s, it was not considered a potential storage
technology until the development of the laser in the 1960s. The resulting rapid development of
holography for displaying 3-D images led researchers to realize that holograms could also store
data at a volumetric density of as much as 1/ where is the wave-length of the light beam used.
Since each data page is retrieved by an array of photo detectors, rather than bi-by-bit, the
holographic scheme promises fast readout rates as well as high density. If a thousand holograms,
each containing a million pixels, could be retrieved every second, for instance, then the output
data rate would reach 1 Gigabit per second.
In the early 1990s, interest in volume-holographic data storage was rekindled by the availability of
devices that could display and detect 2-D pages, including charge coupled devices (CCD),
complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) detector chips and small liquid-crystal
panels. The wide availability of these devices was made possible by the commercial success of
digital camera and video projectors. With these components in hand, holographic-storages
researchers have begun to demonstrate the potential of their technology in the laboratory. By using
the volume of the media, researchers have experimentally demonstrated that data can be stored at
equivalent area densities of nearly 400 bits/sq. micron. (For comparison, a single layer of a DVD
disk stores data at ~ 4.7 bits/sq. micron) A readout rate of 10 gigabit per second has also been
achieved in the laboratory.
FEATURES
 Data transfer rate: 1 gbps.
 The technology permits over 10 kilobits of data to be written and read in parallel with a
single flash.
 Most optical storage devices, such as a standard CD saves one bit per pulse.
 HVDs manage to store 60,000 bits per pulse in the same place.
 1 HVD – 5800 CDs – 830 DVD – 160 BLU-RAY Discs.

STRUCTURE
HVD STRUCTURE
HVD structure is shown in fig 3.1 the following components are used in HVD.
1. Green writing/reading laser (650 nm).

2. Red positioning/addressing laser (650 nm).
3. Hologram (data).
4. Polycarbon layer.
5. Photopolymeric layer (data-containing layer).
6. Distance layers.
7. Dichroic layer (reflecting green light).
8. Aluminum reflective layer (reflecting red light).
9. Transparent base.
10. PIT.
HVD STRUCTURE

HVD READER PROTOTYPE
To read data from an HVD reader. The following components are used to make a reader.
A blue-green laser, beam splitters to split the laser beams, mirrors to direct the laser beams, LCD
panels (spatial light modulator), lenses to focus the beams, lithiumniobate crystals or
photopolymers, and charge-coupled device (CCD) cameras.

HVD READER PROTOTYPE
STORAGE DATA
RECORDING DATA
 A simplified HVD system consists of the following main components:
 Blue or green laser (532-nm wavelength in the test system)
 Beam splitter/merger
 Mirrors
 Spatial light modulator (SLM)
 CMOS sensor
 Polymer recording medium
The process of writing information onto an HVD begins with encoding the information into binary
data to be stored in the SLM. These data are turned into ones and zeroes represented as opaque or
translucent areas on a "page" -- this page is the image that the information beam is going to pass
through.
When the blue-green argon laser is fired, a beam splitter creates two beams. One beam, called the
object or signal beam, will go straight, bounce off one mirror and travel through a spatial-light
modulator (SLM). An SLM is a liquid crystal display (LCD) that shows pages of raw binary data
as clear and dark boxes.
The information from the page of binary code is carried by the signal beam around to the light-
sensitive lithium-niobate crystal. Some systems use a photopolymer in place of the crystal.
A second beam, called the reference beam, shoots out the side of the beam splitter and takes a
separate path to the crystal. When the two beams meet, the interference pattern that is created
stores the data carried by the signal beam in a specific area in the crystal -- the data is stored as a
hologram.

RECORDING DATA
DATA IMAGE
PAGE DATA (LEFT) STORED AS HOLOGRAM (RIGHT)

READING DATA
To read the data from an HVD, you need to retrieve the light pattern stored in the hologram.
In the HVD read system, the laser projects a light beam onto the hologram – a light beam -- a light
beam that is identical to the reference beam.
An advantage of a holographic memory system is that an entire page of data can be retrieved
quickly and at one time. In order to retrieve and reconstruct the holographic page of data stored in
the crystal, the reference beam is shined into the crystal at exactly the same angle at which it
entered to store that page of data. Each page of data is stored in a different area of the crystal,
based on the angle at which the reference beam strikes it.
The key component of any holographic data storage system is the angle at which the reference
beam is fired at the crystal to retrieve a page of data. It must match the original reference beam
angle exactly. A difference of just a thousandth of a millimeter will result in failure to retrieve that
page of data.
During reconstruction, the beam will be diffracted by the crystal to allow the recreation of the
original page that was stored. This reconstructed page is then projected onto the CMOS, which
interprets and forwards the digital information to a computer.

READING DATA
PAGE DATA STORED AND RECREATED BY CMOS

IN AN HVD (LEFT) SENSOR (RIGHT)

MORE ON HVD
High Storage capacity of 3.9 terabyte (TB) enables user to store large amount of data.
Records one program while watching another on the disc.
Edit or reorder programs recorded on the disc.
Automatically search for an empty space on the disc to avoid recording over a program.
Users will be able to connect to the Internet and instantly download subtitles and other
interactive movie features
Backward compatible: Supports CDs and DVDs also.
The transfer rate of HVD is up to 1 gigabyte (GB) per second which is 40 times faster than
DVD.
An HVD stores and retrieves an entire page of data, approximately 60,000 bitsof
information, in one pulse of light, while a DVD stores and retrieves one bitof data in one
pulse of light.

ADVANTAGES OF HDSS
With three-dimensional recording and parallel data readout, holographic memories can outperform
existing optical storage techniques. In contrast to the currently available storage strategies,
holographic mass memory simultaneously offers high data capacity and short data access time
(Storage capacity of about 1TB/cc and data transfer rate of 1 billion bits/second).
Holographic data storage has the unique ability to locate similar features stored within a crystal
instantly. A data pattern projected into a crystal from the top searches thousands of stored
holograms in parallel. The holograms diffract the incoming light out of the side of the crystal, with
the brightest outgoing beams identifying the address of the data that most closely resemble the
input pattern. This parallel search capability is an inherent property of holographic data storage and
allows a database to be searched by content.
Because the interference patter ns are spread uniformly throughout the material, it endows
holographic storage with another useful capability: high reliability. While a defect in the medium
for disk or tape storage might garble critical data, a defect in a holographic medium doesn't wipe
out information. Instead, it only makes the hologram dimmer. No rotation of medium is required as
in the case of other storage devices. It can reduce threat of piracy since holograms can’t be easily
replicated.
DISADVANTAGES OF HDSS
Manufacturing cost HDSS is very high and there is a lack of availability of resources which are
needed to produce HDSS. However, all the holograms appear dimmer because their patterns must
share the material's finite dynamic range. In other words, the additional holograms alter a material
that can support only a fixed amount of change. Ultimately, the images become so dim that noise
creeps into the read-out operation, thus limiting the material's storage capacity.
A difficulty with the HDSS technology had been the destructive readout. The re- illuminated
reference beam used to retrieve the recorded information also excites the donor electrons and
disturbs the equilibrium of the space charge field in a manner that produces a gradual erasure of the
recording. In the past, this has limited the number of reads that can be made before the signal-to
-noise ratio becomes too low. Moreover, writes in the same fashion can degrade previous writes in
the same region of the medium. This restricts the ability to use the three-dimensional capacity of a
photorefractive for recording angle-multiplexed holograms. You would be unable to locate the data
if there’s an error of even a thousandth of an inch.

COMPARISON
Parameters DVD BLU-RAY HVD
Capacity 4.7 GB 25 GB 3.9 TB
650 nm 405 nm 532 nm

Laser wave length (red) (blue) (green)
Disc diameter 120 mm 120 mm 120 mm
Hard coating No yes Yes
Data transfer rate 11.08 mbps 36 mbps 1 gbps

(rawdata)
INTERESTING FACTS
It has been estimated that the books in the U.S. Library of Congress, the largest library in the
world, could be stored on Six HVDs. The pictures of every landmass on Earth - like the ones
shown in Google Earth - can be stored on two HVDs.
With MPEG4 ASP encoding, a HVD can hold anywhere between 4,600-11,900 hours of video,
which is enough for non-stop playing for a year.

HVD AT A GLANCE
Media type : Ultra-high density optical disc.
Encoding : MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC (H.264), and VC-1.
Capacity : Theoretically up to 3.9 TB.
Usage : Data storage, High-definition video, & he possibility of ultra High-definition

video.
STANDARDS
On December 9, 2004 at its 88th General Assembly the standards body Ecma International created
Technical committee 44, dedicated to standardizing HVD formats based on Optware’s technology.
On June 11, 2007, TC44 published the first two HVD standards ECMA-377, defining a 200 GB
HVD “recordable cartridge” and ECMA-378,defining a 100 GB HVD-ROM disc. Its next stated
goals are 30 GB HVD cards and submission of these standards to the International Organization
for Standardization for ISO approval.
POSSIBLE APPLICATION FIELDS
There are many possible applications of holographic memory. Holographic memory systems can
potentially provide the high speed transfers and large volumes of future computer system. One
possible application is data mining.

Data mining is the processes of finding patterns in large amounts of data. Data mining is used
greatly in large databases which hold possible patterns which can’t be distinguished by human eyes
due to the vast amount of data. Some current computer system implement data mining, but the
mass amount of storage required is pushing the limits of current data storage systems. The many
advances in access times and data storage capacity that holographic memory provides could exceed
conventional storage and speedup data mining considerably. This would result in more located
patterns in a shorter amount of time.
Another possible application of holographic memory is in petaflop computing. A petaflop is a

thousand trillion floating point operations per second. The fast access extremely large amounts of
data provided by holographic memory could be utilized in petaflop architecture. Clearly advances
are needed to in more than memory systems, but the theoretical schematics do exist for such a
machine. Optical storage such as holographic memory provides a viable solution to the extreme
amount of data which is required for a petaflop computing.

References
 E. Chuang, W. Liu, J.J. Drolet, and D. Psaltis, “Holographic Random Access
Memory (HRAM),” Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 87, no. 11, pp. 1931-1940,
1999.
 “Literature review”, www.entelky.com/holography/letrew.htm, 2000.
 P.S. Ramanujam, S. Hvilsted, and R.H. Berg, “New polymer materials for
erasable holographic storage,” Risc National Laboratory, Solid State Physics
Department, 2000.
 E. Chuang, J.J. Drolet, G. Barbasthathis, W. Liu, and D. Psaltis, “Compact
Phase Conjugate Holographic Memory,” website, 2000.
 G. Barbasthathis and D.J. Brady, “Multidimensional Tomographic Imaging
Using Volume Holography,”Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 87, no. 12, pp.
2098-2120, 1999.
 D. Psaltis and F. Mok, “Holographic Memories,” Sci.Amer. 273, No. 5, 70
(1995).
 J. F. Heanue, M. C. Bashaw, and L. Hesselink, “Volume Holographic Storage
and Retrieval of Digital Data,”Science 265, 749 (1994).
 J. H. Hong, I. McMichael, T. Y. Chang, W. Christian, and E. G. Paek,
“Volume Holographic Memory Systems: Techniques and Architectures”,
Opt. Eng. 34, 2193–2203 (1995).
 D. Psaltis and G. W. Burr, “Holographic Data Storage”, Computer 31, No. 2,
52– 60 (1998).
 J. W. Goodman, Introduction to Fourier Optics, McGraw-Hill Book Co.,
Inc., New York, 1968.
 M.-P. Bernal, H. Coufal, R. K. Grygier, J. A. Hoffnagle, C. M. Jefferson, R.
M. Macfarlane, R. M. Shelby, G. T. Sincerbox, P. Wimmer, and G. Wittman,
“A Precision Tester for Studies of Holographic Optical Storage Materials and
Recording Physics,” Appl. Opt. 35, 2360 –2374 (1996).

 R. M. Shelby, J. A. Hoffnagle, G. W. Burr, C. M. Jefferson, M.-P. Bernal, H.
Coufal, R. K. Grygier, H. Guenther, R. M. Macfarlane, and G. T. Sincerbox,
“Pixel- Matched Holographic Data Storage with Megabit Pages,” Opt. Lett.
22, 1509 (1997).
 G. W. Burr, J. Ashley, H. Coufal, R. Grygier, J. Hoffnagle, C. M. Jefferson,
and B. Marcus, “Modulation Coding for Pixel-Matched Holographic Data
Storage,” Opt. Lett. 22, 639 – 41 (1997).
 J. L. Sanford, P. F. Greier, K. H. Yang, M. Lu, R. S. Olyha, Jr., C. Narayan, J.
A. Hoffnagle, P. M. Alt, and R. L. Melcher, “A One-Megapixel Reflective
Spatial Light Modulator System for Holographic Storage,” IBM J. Res.
Develop. 42, No. 3/4, 411– 426 (1998).
 M.-P. Bernal, G. W. Burr, H. Coufal, R. K. Grygier, J. A. Hoffnagle, C. M.
Jefferson, E. Oesterschulze, R. M. Shelby, G. T. Sincerbox, and M.
Quintanilla, “Effects of Multilevel Phase Masks on Interpixel Crosstalk in
Holographic Data Storage,” Appl. Opt. 36, No. 14,3107–3115 (1997).
Web references:
 www.holopc.com
 www.wikeipedia.com
 www.engeeniringseminars.com
 www.computer.howstuffworks.com
 www.tech-faq.com/hvd.shtml
 www.ibm.com - IBM Research Press Resources Holographic Storage

Holographic Data Storage System - Seminar Report

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

You might also like

Holographic Data Storage System - Seminar Report

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Holographic Data Storage System - Seminar Report

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Gyan Vihar School of Engineering & Technology

“ HOLOGRAPHIC DATA STORAGE SYSTEM ”

Submitted in partial fulfillment for the award for

degree of Bachelor of Technology (Computer Engineering)

Computer Science Department Holographic Data Storage System (HDSS) 1

Firstly I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Almighty for

I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to the Faculty of the

Finally I would like to express my gratitude to Gyan Vihar College of

Computer Science Department Holographic Data Storage System (HDSS) 2

4. Removable Media Storage Devices...............................17

Computer Science Department Holographic Data Storage System (HDSS) 3

13. Hardware For Holographic Data Storage...............................44

14. HDSS Testers...........................................................................46

Computer Science Department Holographic Data Storage System (HDSS) 4

15. Coding and Signal Processing..................................................59

16. Associative Retrieval................................................................67

17. Recording Materials................................................................72

20.Advantages & Disadvantages of HDSS...............97

Computer Science Department Holographic Data Storage System (HDSS) 5

Computer Science Department Holographic Data Storage System (HDSS) 7

In holographic data storage, an entire page of information is stored at once as an optical

Computer Science Department Holographic Data Storage System (HDSS) 8

Computer Science Department Holographic Data Storage System (HDSS) 9

The image of the data page at the camera must

aberrations in the imaging system or misfocus

Computer Science Department Holographic Data Storage System (HDSS) 10

 Mutually coherent light from two sources creates an interference pattern in the media.

Computer Science Department Holographic Data Storage System (HDSS) 11

 The need to add error-correction

Computer Science Department Holographic Data Storage System (HDSS) 12

Computer Science Department Holographic Data Storage System (HDSS) 13

Computer Science Department Holographic Data Storage System (HDSS) 14

 Compact disc-read only memory (CD-ROM)

Computer Science Department Holographic Data Storage System (HDSS) 15

In a DVD, storage of data in the data layers can be:

Computer Science Department Holographic Data Storage System (HDSS) 16

Computer Science Department Holographic Data Storage System (HDSS) 17

Computer Science Department Holographic Data Storage System (HDSS) 18

Computer Science Department Holographic Data Storage System (HDSS) 19

Computer Science Department Holographic Data Storage System (HDSS) 20

Computer Science Department Holographic Data Storage System (HDSS) 21

Computer Science Department Holographic Data Storage System (HDSS) 22

Computer Science Department Holographic Data Storage System (HDSS) 23

Though holography is often referred to as 3D photography, this is a misconception. A better

Interference and diffraction

Computer Science Department Holographic Data Storage System (HDSS) 25

Computer Science Department Holographic Data Storage System (HDSS) 26

Computer Science Department Holographic Data Storage System (HDSS) 27

Computer Science Department Holographic Data Storage System (HDSS) 28

Computer Science Department Holographic Data Storage System (HDSS) 29

Computer Science Department Holographic Data Storage System (HDSS) 30

Spatial Light Modulator (SLM)

Computer Science Department Holographic Data Storage System (HDSS) 31

Page Data Access

Computer Science Department Holographic Data Storage System (HDSS) 32

Combining Multiplexing Methods

Computer Science Department Holographic Data Storage System (HDSS) 34