Data storage using pulsed optical domain reversal
AssigneeThe Board of Regents of the University of Michigan
InventorsStephen B. Fahy, Roberto Merlin
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Abstract
Digital data is stored using optical means exclusively in a storage media which is characterized with a soft-phonon mode. Electric dipole domains in the storage medium are caused to reverse in polarity in response to the impinging thereon of an optical pulse. The optical pulse, which may be formed of a plurality of colliding optical pulses, must have sufficient energy to cause the reversal of the polarization of the electric dipole domain, or the reorientation thereof, without providing sufficient energy whereby the dipole reverts to its initial condition. Any material which exhibits structural phase transitions associated with soft-phonons which can couple directly or by non-linear processes to incident irradiation are candidates for optical domain-switching.
Claims13
A method of storing data, the method comprising the steps of:
- receiving the data to be stored;
- convening the data into at least one optical pulse;
- and
- directing the optical pulse to impinge upon a medium formed at least partially of a storage material having a phonon mode characteristic associated with microscopic electric dipole domains, whereby the optical pulse causes the electric polarization of at least one microscopic electric dipole domain to reverse its polarity.
A method of storing data, the method comprising the steps of:
- receiving the data to be stored;
- converting the data into at least one optical pulse;
- and
- directing the optical pulse to impinge upon a medium formed at least partially of a nonferroelectric storage material having a soft phonon mode characteristic associated with microscopic electric dipole domains, whereby the optical pulse causes the electric polarization of at least one microscopic electric dipole domain to become reoriented.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.