27-02-2016, 03:44 PM
Abstract
This paper describes holographic data storage as a viable alternative to magnetic disk data storage. Currently data access times are extremely slow for magnetic disks when compared to the speed of execution of CPUs so that any improvement in data access speeds will greatly increase the capabilities of computers, especially with large data and multimedia files. Holographic memory is a technology that uses a three dimensional medium to store data and it can access such data a page at a time instead of sequentially, which leads to increases in storage density and access speed. Holographic data storage systems are very close to becoming economically feasible. Obstacles that limit holographic memory are hologram decay over time and with repeated accesses, slow recording rates, and data transfer rates that need to be increased. Photorefractive crystals and photopolymers have been used successfully in experimental holographic data storage systems. Such systems exploit the optical properties of these photosensitive materials along with the behavior of laser light when it is used to record an image of an object. Holographic memory lies between main memory and magnetic disk in regards to data access times, data transfer rates, and data storage density.