Single sideband data retrieval using swept-carrier optical memory

Summary form only given. The swept-carrier optical data storage technique provides high storage density together with high read-write speed. In this technique, data is temporally encoded on a frequency-swept optical data beam. This beam along with a cotemporal, frequency-swept, reference beam illuminate a storage material and act to record the temporal structure of the data beam. We point out here that by eliminating the frequency offset between swept-carrier data and reference beams, one records only a single sideband of the data beam and on reconstruction can generate a single-sideband signal beam containing essentially the same modulation information as the original dual-sideband data beam. This result may be useful in both memory storage applications where it may lead to higher spectral storage densities and in communications as a means of generating single-sideband optical beams, albeit with an intrinsic frequency chirp.