Using a 130-fs, 800-nm laser, researchers from Osaka University in Japan and Harbin Institute of Technology in China have stored holographic data on nonphotosensitive fused silica, soda lime and lead glasses. The method works exceptionally well with the cheapest and most commonly produced type of glass. They predict this will be a major boon to the use of holographic data storage.

As they reported in the Sept. 9 issue of Applied Physics Letters, the researchers split the beam from a Spectra-Physics femtosecond laser into a reference beam and an object beam. The beams produced interference fringes, which recorded the holographic data by means of surface ablation.