NOVEL PHOTOREFRACTIVE MEDIA FOR OPTICAL MEMORY STORAGE USING MULTICOMPONENT INORGANIC-ORGANIC COMPOSITES

THERE IS A CONVINCING NEED FOR NOVEL AND RELIABLE MEMORY STORAGE DEVICES TO BE USED IN RAPIDLY ADVANCING OPTICAL COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY. THE NOVEL OPTICAL STORAGE DEVICES MUST HAVE THE ATTRIBUTES OF HIGH DENSITY DATA STORAGE AND RETRIVAL WITH HIGH SPEEDS TO BE COMPATIBLE WITH ULTRA-FAST OPTICAL COMPUTERS. MATERIALS WHICH CAN BE USED FOR THIS TYPE OF ERASABLE HIGH DENSITY MEMORY DEVICES ARE PHOTOREFRACTIVE MATERIALS EXHIBITING A REVERSIBLE REFRACTIVE INDEX CHANGE UDER A LOW POWER LASER BEAM ILLUMINATION. INFORMATION RECORDING IN THE VOLUME OF A PHOTOREFRACTIVE MATERIAL POTENTIALLY OFFERS A STORAGE DENSITY OF 10(12) BITS CM-3. THE PROPOSED PHASE I RESEARCH UTILIZES SOL-GEL TECHNIQUE TO FABRICATE PROCESSABLE PHOTOREFRACTIVE MATERIAL MADE OF NOVEL INORGANIC GAS/ORGANIC POLYMER COMPOSITE. THE FLEXIBILITY OF SOL-GEL PROCESSING OF THE MATERIALS ALLOWS TO VARY CONSTITUENTS OF THE PROPOSED COMPOSITE TO ACHIEVE HIGH PHOTOREFRACTIVE SENSITIVITY AND DIFFRACTION EFFICIENCY, AND LOW DARK CURRENT CONDUCTIVITY. THE PROCESSING EASE OF THE PROPOSED MATERIALS ENABLES ROUTE TO INEXPENSIVE, RECONFIGURABLE AND HIGH DENSITY OPTICAL MEMORY STORAGE DEVICES. ANTICIPATED BENEFITS/POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS - THE PROPOSED APPROACH TO FABRICATE INORGANIC/ORGANIC PHOTOREFRACTIVE MATERIALS WILL BE AN EFFECTIVE AND VERSATILE TECHNIQUE FOR PRODUCING EFFICIENT, HIGH SPEED, AND HIGH DENSITY OPTICAL MEMORY DEVICES. APPLICATIONS INCLUDE OPTICAL COMPUTING AND HIGH DEFINITION VIDEO DISPLAY.