Most of current storage technologies rely on the sequential recording and retrieval of binary data. Such an approach limits the data transfer rate. In holography, en entire page of digital information is recorded in parallel into a single hologram.

Source: InPhase Technologies

Reconstruction of the full page of data is achieved by diffracting a reading optical beam on the hologram recorded in the storage medium.

Source: InPhase Technologies

The massive parallelism of holographic techniques enables high data transfer rates that are difficult to achieve with traditional sequential technologies.

A key challenge for this technology has been to find a low cost optical recording medium for the recording and retrieval of holograms. Optical polymers in which thick phase holograms can be written are good candidates. Holographic techniques are well suited for applications that require the processing of large amounts of data.