Storing, Retrieving, and Processing Optical Information by Raman Backscattering in Plasmas
Authors: I.Y. Dodin and N.J. Fisch
Date of PPPL Report: January 2002
Published in: Physical Review Letters 88 (April 2002) 165001-1 to 165001-4.
By employing stimulated Raman backscattering in a plasma, information carried by a laser pulse can be captured in the form of a very slowly propagating plasma wave that persists for a time large compared with the pulse duration. If the plasma is then probed with a short laser pulse, the information stored in the plasma wave can be retrieved in a second scattered electromagnetic wave. The recording and retrieving processes can conserve robustly the pulse shape, thus enabling the recording and retrieving with fidelity of information stored in optical signals.