OPTICAL DATA STORAGE: 500 Gbyte volume-holographic disc can be written at Blu-ray speed

摘要

Researchers at GE Global Research (Niskayuna, NY) have made progress toward their goal of creating a practical 500 Gbyte CD-sized disc based on holographic technology. Aiming to produce an optical disc with enough space to support the increasing requirements of the professional data-archiving industry, they demonstrated a threshold micro-holographic storage material in 2009 that could support 500 Gbytes of storage in a standard DVD-size disc. One drawback: The recording speed was relatively slow. Now, the group has unveiled a version that supports recording at the same speed as standard Blu-ray discs. Peter Lorraine, manager of the Applied Optics Laboratory at GE Global Research, gave a talk on the new material at the IEEE's Joint International Symposium on Optical Memory & Optical Data Storage Topical Meeting (July 17-20, 2011; Lihue, Hawaii).