Three-dimensional holographic stamping of multi-layer bit-oriented non-linear optical media

In a method including

• generating in a first optical medium a master hologram containing information to be placed within the volume of a second optical medium, and then
• using the generated master hologram to record the information within multiple layers of the three dimensional volume of a blank second optical medium,
• an improvement wherein the generating comprises:
• redundantly generating the master hologram in the first optical medium by use of a plurality m of separate reference beams, each beam bearing information suitably recorded in one or more of a plurality n layers of the second optical medium;
• and wherein the using comprises:
• simultaneously illuminating the generated master hologram with all of m reference beams so as to produce a corresponding m recording beams;
• and
• using the m recording beams in each of the n layers of the blank optical medium resulting in a total of m×n reference beams being directed to record all the multiple layers of the three dimensional volume of the second optical medium.

A method of producing in a first optical medium a master hologram containing information suitably imaged into multiple bit-oriented layers within a volume space of a second optical medium, thus a master hologram suitable for holographic stamping of multi-layer bit oriented optical medium, the method comprising:

• generating in the first optical medium a master hologram by use of a plurality m of distinct reference beams, each beam bearing information that is suitably recorded in one or more of a plurality n layers of the second optical medium;
• wherein, as well as the information, each beam produces, innately to its distinction from all other beams, characteristics of the master hologram that identify in which one or more of a plurality n layers of the second optical medium the information is so suitably recorded;
• wherein, as is conventional for a hologram, the hologram contains both information and all spatial locations of the information;
• wherein the hologram is distinguished for containing information that is layered and, equivalently, layers that contain information.