Holographic
storage is a
mass storage technology that uses three-dimensional holographic images to
enable more
information to be stored in a much smaller space. The technology uses holograms
which are created
when a light from a single laser beam is split into two beams; the signal beam
(which carries the data) and the reference beam. In holographic storage, at the
point where the reference beam and the data carrying signal beam intersect, the
hologram is recorded in the light sensitive storage medium.
When you create a
variance in the reference beam angle or media position then hundreds of unique
holograms can be recorded in the same volume of material. To read the stored
holographic data, the reference beam is deflected off the hologram
reconstructing the stored information. This hologram is then projected onto a
detector that reads the entire data page of over one million bits at once.
[Adapted from InPhase Technologies]
