Potentials of two-photon based 3-D optical memories for high performance computing.

The advent of optoelectronic computers and highly parallel electronic processors has brought about a need for storage systems with enormous memory capacity and memory bandwidth. These demands cannot be met with current memory technologies (i.e., semiconductor, magnetic, or optical disk) without having the memory system completely dominate the processors in terms of the overall cost, power consumption, volume, and weight. As a solution, we propose an optical volume memory based on the two-photon effect which allows for high density and parallel access. In addition, the two-photon 3-D memory system has the advantages of having high capacity and throughput which may overcome the disadvantages of current memories.

Three-dimensional optical storage memory.

A novel three-dimensional (3-D) optical memory device is presented that allows fast random access of the information and extremely high bit densities. This device is based on two-photon writing, reading, and erasing of the information in a photochromic material embedded in a polymer matrix. Absorption and emission data show that two-photon writing and reading of information is feasible. The advantages and properties of such a 3-D optical memory are discussed.