Abstract

It is shown that simultaneous and spatially overlapping multiple photon echoes can occur following application of a single optical pulse followed by multiple pairs of counterpropagating pulses in various directions—degenerate photon echoes. This scheme has been experimentally verified in Pr³⁺:LaF₃ for the doubly degenerate case. In the small-pulse-area regime, the two echoes are observed to be independent with no cross talk between them. From the viewpoint of transient optical memory, this enables us to store multiple independent optical data in one sample spot and to retrieve any one of them, thereby multiplying the memory capacity of the crystal.

© 1988 Optical Society of America

Multiple-bit long-term data storage by backward-stimulated echo in Eu³⁺:YAlO₃

M. K. Kim and R. Kachru
Opt. Lett. 14(9) 423-425 (1989)

248-Bit optical data storage in Eu³⁺:YAlO₃ by accumulated photon echoes

M. Mitsunaga and N. Uesugi
Opt. Lett. 15(3) 195-197 (1990)

Storage and phase conjugation of multiple images using backward-stimulated echoes in Pr³⁺:LaF₃

M. K. Kim and R. Kachru
Opt. Lett. 12(8) 593-595 (1987)

Frequency-chirped copropagating multiple-bit stimulated-echo storage and retrieval in Pr³⁺:YAlO₃

S. Kröll, L. E. Jusinski, and R. Kachru
Opt. Lett. 16(7) 517-519 (1991)

Many-bit optical data storage using stimulated echoes

Myung-Keun Kim and Ravinder Kachru
Appl. Opt. 28(12) 2186-2189 (1989)