Fundamentals and Advances in Holographic Materials for Optical Data Storage

15.1 IntroductionThe idea of using holograms for storage of information was first suggested by van Heerden in 1963, who proposed to store data by recording the information carrying a light interference pattern in a holographic medium. He also predicted that the minimum volume necessary to record a bit of information is ~λ3, where λ is the wavelength used in the holographic recording. This involves an impressive density of data on the order of …