Abstract: Ferroelectric materials are disclosed as reversible holographic recording media (25) for use in two-photon recording systems. The ferroelectric materials disclosed herein provide long-lived electronic states intermediate the ferroelectric material's valence and conduction bands. These intermediate states have a sufficiently long life (on the order of 1 to 100 milliseconds) that low-power continuous wave ("cw") lasers (1) can be used to record interference patterns on them. Thus, two-photon holographic recording systems are also disclosed which do not require high-power, short pulse length, mode-locked or Q-switched lasers. The disclosed two-photon holographic recording systems provide for absorption of a first photon which excites electrons of holographic recording media to an intermediate state. Thereafter, upon absorption of a second photon, the electrons are promoted to the media's conduction band where they are arranged according to the interference pattern provided by the recording system.

Abstract: Ferroelectric materials are disclosed as reversible holographic recording media (25) for use in two-photon recording systems. The ferroelectric materials disclosed herein provide long-lived electronic states intermediate the ferroelectric material's valence and conduction bands. These intermediate states have a sufficiently long life (on the order of 1 to 100 milliseconds) that low-power continuous wave ("cw") lasers (1) can be used to record interference patterns on them. Thus, two-photon holographic recording systems are also disclosed which do not require high-power, short pulse length, mode-locked or Q-switched lasers. Rather, the disclosed holographic recording systems employ visible and near IR cw lasers such as diode lasers.The disclosed two-photon holographic recording systems provide for absorption of a first photon which excites electrons of holographic recording media to an intermediate state.

Abstract: Rare earth doped ferroelectric materials are disclosed as reversible holographic recording medium (25) for use in two-photon recording systems. Such rare earth elements provide long-lived electronic states intermediate the ferroelectric material's valence and conduction bands. In some cases, these rare earth intermediate states have a sufficiently long life that low-power continuous wave ("cw") lasers (1) can be used to record interference patterns on them. Thus, two-photon holographic recording systems are also disclosed which do not require high-power, short pulse length, mode-locked or Q-switched lasers. Rather, the disclosed holographic recording systems employ cw lasers such as diode lasers. The rare earth dopants include praseodymium, neodymium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, and thulium. These dopants provide ions having 4f excited states that give rise to absorptions in the near infra-red and visible spectral regions and typically have lifetimes on the order of 0.1 to 1 milliseconds.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for coherent time-domain optical data storage utilizing a randomizing phase modulation to increase storage capacity. A laser (10) generates write. read, and data pulses which are applied to an acousto-optic modulator (11), which modulates the pulses according to a modulation signal received from a radio-frequency modulator (12), and the modulated pulses are applied to the storage medium (13). The data signal to be recorded on the storage medium is subjected to spread-spectrum modulation, and in particular to pseudo-random phase modulation. The RF-modulator (12) modulates the write and read pulses with a frequency-chirping modulation and modulates the data pulse with the spread-spectrum modulated data signal before applying the respective pulses to the storage medium. The result is that a significantly longer data signal may be effectively recorded on the optical storage medium for a given characteristic de-phasing time of the medium.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus having a third-order nonlinear stimulated photon echo medium (1). The photon echo medium (1) can store large numbers of images in the form of a Fourier transformed pattern by spectral modulation. The spectral modulation is carried out by sending optical pulses in an optical pulse train having (or not having) image information to the medium (1) so that the population in the ground and excited states are modulated after the passage of the pulse trains and pulses. The Fourier transformed pattern is converted back to temporal modulation, consisting of a sequence of echo pulses that reproduce the original data pulse train. By using the apparatus, ultrafast operation such as convolution and correlation between a number of reference images and a test image can be achieved.