Optically Addressed Nanostructures for High Density Data Storage

摘要

A memory is any physical system with a large number of distinguishable states. Through the work undertaken in this program we have shown that an optical field can be used to distinguish among N different physical configurations of a nanostructure whose volume is comparable to a cubic wavelength, thus achieving log2(N) bits of capacity within a single resolution element. We have studied the use of near-field optical measurement together with spatially-and spectrally-selective defects to define and readout sub-resolution nanostructure storage configurations. We have successfully identified, studied, and characterized nanostructure configurations that provide optically distinguishable states with large interstate distances. We have focused on sub-resolution surface-relief structures combined with near- field detector arrays to demonstrate approximate storage densities of 25 bits/micrometers(exp 2). We extended this work to so-called nano-structured voxels in which we employed sub-resolution volumetric degrees of freedom and near-field detector arrays. We designed the data carrying volumetric defects so us to exploit a plasmon resonance in their metallic nanoshells, and we predicted significantly improved storage densities of nearly 300 bits/micrometers(exp 2). This work has resulted in an improved understanding of the interaction between space-time electromagnetic fields and various (imperfect) nanostructure volumes, new near-field optical characterization methods to determine the sub-resolution 3D configuration of artificial nanostructures, and new bounds on the abilities of optical fields to probe physical processes on length scales below the optical wavelength.