LONG-TERM CONTINUOUS READOUT OF A PHOTOREFRACTIVE MEMORY WITH BATIO3 POSTAMPLIFICATION

We propose and demonstrate a long-term readout photorefractive memory. It is made up of two photorefractive crystals; the first where the im ages are stored and the second where the signal is amplified by use of a low-noise self-bent pump-beam technique, making it possible to use very low illumination of the storage crystal. A LiNbO3/BaTiO3 configur ation is used with angular multiplexing; this technique permits contin uous readout for more that 60 days. The long-term storage capacity and the maximum number of stored images are estimated. (C) 1997 Optical S ociety of America.