Holographic recording media can store the amplitude and the phase, or the complex amplitude, of a beam on the basis of holography. Owing to this characteristic, digital data can be encoded onto the complex amplitude of a signal beam in holographic data storage. However, most of conventional holographic storage systems encode digital data onto the amplitude alone because there are difficulties for modulating and detecting the phase. To solve the difficulties, a holographic storage system using digital holographic techniques has been proposed. With the help of digital holographic techniques, it is possible to modulate and detect the complex amplitude of a signal beam. Moreover, the proposed system can modulate the complex amplitude of a reference beam. In this paper, by making use of the capability, a correlation-based multiplexing with uncorrelated reference beams is demonstrated in the proposed system. Multiple holograms can be recorded in the same volume of a recording medium with no need for mechanical movements. Experimental results show that the proposed system with a correlation-based multiplexing can improve the storage capacity and can utilize the full potential of a recording medium without crosstalk noise stem from the optical setup.
Keywords: digital holography; holographic data storage; holography; phase hologram; photopolymer.