A new optical recording device

The Ruticon is a solid-state cyclically reuseable image-recording device. It has a layered structure consisting of a conductive transparent substrate, a thin photoconductive layer, a thin deformable elastomer layer, and a deformable electrode such as a conductive liquid, a conductive gas, or a thin flexible metal layer. When an electric field is placed between the conductive substrate and the deformable electrode the elastomer will deform into a surface relief pattern corresponding to the light-intensity distribution of an image focused on the photoconductor. Light modulated by the deformation of the elastomer surface can in turn be converted to an intensity distribution similar to the original image by means of simple optics.