Abstract

Bismuth tellurite, Bi₂TeO₅, is a promising photorefractive material for holographic data storage. Due to its self Exing capabilities, recorded volume holograms do not require any further Ϸxing. Thereby bismuth tellurite accomplishes non-volatile readout of holograms without additional system technology and overcomes an crucial drawback of other inorganic storage materials. Another typical shortcoming of holographic data storage in inorganic crystals using cw laser beams are the long medial writing times. Consequently, in this article the characteristics of recording two dimensional data pages in undoped bismuth tellurite crystals are studied when using a pulsed laser at 532 nm with pulse durations in the nanosecond time scale. Build-up, decay and diffraction ef Ϸciency of the photorefractive gratings are examined under pulse excitation. Additionally, the quality and durability of recorded digital data pages are investigated and compared to those recorded into iron doped lithium niobate.

© 2005 Optical Society of America