One of our stops at the Global Research Center, holographic data storage, got a little writeup in the New York Times yesterday as well as a nice roundup over at the Global Research Center Blog.
Here’s Brian Lawrence explaining “threshold recording behavior”:
You may be asking, “what is threshold recording behavior?” Well, it is a fancy way of saying that we are looking to develop a material that records data in a way that is similar to how other optical disc technologies (CD, DVD, or BD) record data. That is, when the optical drive is reading a disc, the laser power is turned down to relatively low levels. To record data the laser power inside the drive will be turned up to high power. This high power enables the laser to create changes in the recording layer of the disc. For example, a laser power of 1 mW might be used to read a CD or DVD, which is less than most laser pointers generate, but a laser power of 10 to 50 mW might be used to record. So to put it simply, threshold behavior refers to the low-power readout and high-power recording process.
Quite an accomplishment!
Anyone have any thoughts on the applications?…I would guess high-def TV is already about as high-def as it needs to be. Computer backup storage is an obvious one…wonder what else is being considered.
Thanks for the comment David, when we were talking to GE one of the uses was just backup, being able to save massive amounts of information in one place with a fairly stable shelf life.