The goal of this Phase l Shirt is to deliver a prototype data storage medium capable of two-photon three-dimensional read/write capability. The key approach will be the use of oriented bacteriorhodopsin in a transparent polymer matrix enclosed within an optical glass cube with two transparent indium tin oxide electrodes on opposing sides. 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 development and characterization experiments described in Section E. Briefly, the specific objectives of this Phase I proposal are to: two-photon three-dimensional optical storage media based on oriented bacteriorhodops in polymer cubes; capabilities of the data storage cubes, including read speed, write speed, cyclicity and signal/noise capability for extended read/write cycles; on the two-photon three dimensional data storage approach. During Phase II, we plan to produce and optimize the bacteriorhodopsin cubes conceptualized and tested during the Phase I effort. We will also implement the parallel storage device concepts generated during the Phase I effort.
