DATA ACQUISITION ERASABLE OPTICAL MEMORY

THIS PROPOSAL ADDRESSES THE FEASIBILITY DEMONSTRATION OF AN OPTICAL MEMORY APPROACH WHICH IS INHERENTLY AMENDABLE TO MULTI-LEVEL-DIGITAL OR ANALOG OPTICAL STORAGE. RECENT QUANTEX MATERIALS DEVELOPMENTS HAVE SHOWN THAT SOME OF ITS NEW ELECTRON-TRAPPING (ET) MATERIALS CAN PROVIDE ALL-OPTICAL WRITE, READ AND ERASE MEMORY FUNCTIONS WHICH ARE LINEAR OVER ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE OF THE WRITE LIGHT INTENSITY. EACH MICROSCOPIC STORAGE LOCATION COULD THEREFORE STORE MANY BITS OF INFORMATION. THE ET MATERIALS PERFORM THE OPTICAL MEMORY FUNCTION AT ROOM TEMPERATURE AND HAVE VERY FAST RESPONSE TIMES. RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT TO GENERATE SUCH GENERAL-PURPOSE VERY-HIGH-STORAGE-DENSITYOPTICAL MEMORIES COULD GREATLY AID IMAGE DATA ACQUISITION AND OTHER HIGH-BANDWIDTH SYSTEMS.