Long-term retrieving experiment on rewritable holographic memory with dynamic refreshment by mutual-pumped phase conjugator

Abstract

In this paper, we demonstrate long-term readout in a photorefractive memory with a dynamic refreshment technique by mutual-pumped phase conjugate mirror (MPPCM). The dynamic refreshment means that a volatile hologram is sustained in parallel with its reconstruction by only all-optical process. A simple optical feedback circuit for hologram sustainment by MPPCM is added on to a photorefractive memory in our dynamic refreshment technique. By continuously rewriting with feedback of reconstructed image, long-term continuous readout of a volatile hologram can be realized. This technique with MPPCM also offers grayscale-to-binary conversion by the beam resonance and intensity thresholding of MPPCM that it cannot be built up where the intensity is lower than the threshold level. By adjusting the proper threshold value, therefore, a noise-reduced binary image can be retrieved without any external processing systems. Moreover, high quality output data can be obtained because phase distortion on the image can be automatically removed by optical phase conjugation. This technology is applicable to recording technique such as angular and phase-code multiplexing and allows long-term readout of multiple holograms by the appropriate refreshing schedules. We perform the experiment on long-term readout using barium titanate (BaTiO 3 ) crystals and demonstrate a recorded image is reconstructed over 1 hour with our technique whereas a reconstructed image fades away within 5 minutes with conventional readout technique.