US-Germany Cooperative Research: Photorefractive Materials for Holographic Information Systems

California Institute Of Technology, Pasadena CA

Investigators

Abstract

0233988 Psaltis This award supports Demetri Psaltis and two students from the California Institute of Technology in a collaboration with Karsten Buse of the Department of Physics at the University of Bonn, Germany. The project will focus on the study of volume holographic recording in photorefractive crystals. The major problem up to now has been that the holographic data gets erased during read out, making it unsuitable for storage devices. A solution to the problem lies in the use of doubly doped crystals, and this collaboration will optimize the materials, which could be used to make rewritable storage devices. Together the two groups will model the physical mechanisms responsible for the success of the method, improve the performance of the method by testing other dopants and crystals, and demonstrate a persistent holographic memory system incorporating doubly doped crystals. The project also has an educational objective. The project will allow the graduate students involved to benefit from performing research in another country. They will develop a heightened appreciation of the world around them while also learning important new technical skills.