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AssigneeLumera Corporation
InventorAdil Lahrichi
Estimating the term…
A holographic information storage and retrieval system provides an all-optical reversible method to fix information in doped or undoped photorefractive materials. The fixed information is sufficiently stable to provide long term archival storage over a period of decades or more and can be read out non-destructively by a coherent reference beam. Holograms recorded in a photorefractive material are fixed when the material is irradiated with incoherent ultraviolet light. Hence, the holograms are preserved indefinitely against erasure by a coherent beam and against dissipation in dark storage. Holograms, which are fixed in the photorefractive material with incoherent ultraviolet light, are. also erased with incoherent ultraviolet light, thus making the process reversible.
A method for fixing information in a storage material to protect the information against erasure or dissipation, said method comprising the steps of:
A system for freezing information in a storage material to fix the information against erasure or dissipation, comprising:
The system as set forth in claim 11 wherein said means for fixing includes an ultraviolet radiation source providing said fixing radiation.
The system as set forth in claim 12 wherein said ultraviolet radiation source is operably configured to provide coherent ultraviolet light.
The system as set forth in claim 11 including means for operating said means for recording and said means for fixing at the same time.
The system as set forth in claim 11 including means for operating said means for recording and said means for fixing at different times.
The system as set forth in claim 11 wherein said fixing means includes means for fixing in staged successive time intervals.
The system as set forth in claim 11 wherein said fixing means includes means for irradiating said storage material with ultraviolet radiation for a sufficient period of time to protect a hologram stored in said storage material against substantially complete degradation during readout of said hologram by a coherent beam.
In an optical storage medium containing information that is stored by the photorefractive effect the improvement comprising optically induced means for stabilizing stored information to prevent dissipation of stored information for a period of at least one year.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.