Manfred Gehrtz, Gary C. Bjorklund, et al.
Journal of the Optical Society of America B: Optical Physics
Persistent spectral hole burning permits use of optical frequency for encoding digital information at cryogenic temperatures, with storage densities far beyond the limits of conventional laser-disk recording. In the work presented here, several key technological issues of such a storage system have been investigated. Data were encoded with high spatial and spectral resolution using a specially designed cryostat. The fast tuning characteristics of semiconductor diode lasers were studied to test the feasibility of fast data access in the frequency domain. Fast readout was investigated in a simulation experiment using heterodyne detection with frequency modulated diode lasers. © 1986 Optical Society of America.