Photochromic diarylethene for rewritable holographic data storage.

A new diarylethene doped with poly(methyl methacrylate) film is developed and its characteristics of volume holographic recording are investigated. The maximum diffraction efficiency of the 10microm thick film is 1.2%, and the rewritable hologram recording exhibits its high resolution, fatigue resistance, negligible shrinkage, and long lifetime, which are critical to apply this material to high-density rewritable holographic data storage.