New optical readout technique for ultra-high capacity information storage using microelectromechanical tips

Ultra-high capacity information storage is a goal pursued by many researchers in the fields of optical computation and optical signal processing. We present for the first time a new optical technique combining electro-optic probing and micromechanical tips to perform the readout and writing for an ultra-high capacity memory. Potentially, this technique could achieve a storage density of 1 Terabit/cm/sup 2/.