SBIR-STTR Award

The goal of this Phase I SBIR is to deliver prototype materials capable of sustaining real-time holographic recording. The key approach will be the use of bacteriorhodopsin thin films as read/write holographic storage media. During the six month period that is the subject of this grant proposal, we plan to test the feasibility of this approach by performing the materials devel- opment and characterization experiments described in Section E. Briefly, the specific objectives of this Phase I proposal are to: a. Develop a process to make prototype, uniform, optical quality thin films of bacteriorhodopsin or bacteriorhodopsin-polymer films; b. Test the holographic properties of the thin films of bacteriorhodopsin, including diffraction efficiency, sensitivity and response times; c. Develop concepts and designs for materials improvements that optimize the quality of bacteriorhodopsin films for dynamic holography. During Phase II, we plan to produce and optimize the bacteriorhodopsin variants conceptualized during the Phase I effort. Properties to be optimized include protein growth and expression parameters, synthesis techniques and materials processing and deposition techniques.

Holographic volumetric data storage is regarded as offering the best short-term commercial potential for associative and volumetric memories. At present, numerous problems in electronics, optics and materials remain to be solved before this approach can reach a level of reliability and cost effectiveness comparable to conventional, two-dimensional optical and magnetic storage techniques. In particular, we will develop films of bacteriorhodopsin (bR) as the active media in holographic volumetric memories (HVM), and improve the material through chemical stabilization in the films, chromophore substitution and site directed mutagenesia. Our objective is to prepare thin and thick films of bacteriorhodopsin with the following attributes: high cyclicity (>106), high quantum efficiency (>0.6), high sensitivity (1-4 mJ/cm2), adequate diffraction efficiency (>5%), medium-speed writer (200 ms/page or 130 MByte/s), high-speed read (>100 ms/page or >260 MByte/s) and non-destructive read capability. When compared to the current inorganic crystal media as well as the best photopolymers presently available, a 2-20 fold improvement in data storage capacity should be realized. As an optional task we will build and test a prototype paged holographic data storage system.