Recent advances in holographic data storage

Abstract

Nowadays, big-data centers still rely on hard drives. However, there is strong evidence that these surface-storage technologies are approaching fundamental limits that may be difficult to overcome, as ever-smaller bits become less thermally stable and harder to access. An intriguing approach for next generation data-storage is to use light to store information throughout the three-dimensional (3D) volume of a material. Holographic data storage (HDS) is poised to change the way we write and retrieve data forever. After many years of developing appropriate recording media and optical read–write architectures, this promising technology is now moving industriously to the market. In this paper, a review of the major achievements of HDS in the past ten years is presented and the key technique details are discussed. The author concludes that HDS technology is an attractive candidate for big data centers in the future. On the other hand, there are many challenges ahead for HDS technology to overcome in the years to come.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

holographic data storage (HDS) / microholography / photopolymer / channel code / signal detection / big data center

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Acknowledgement

This work was supported in part by the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (No. 14521103303).

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