Atmospheric Cherenkov Detectors at Milagro to Measure Cosmic-Ray Composition Above 50 TeV

A laser-optical write and read process whereby a thermally alterable recording layer which contains liquid-crystalline compounds in homogeneous planar orientation and forms part of a multilayer, sheet-like recording material is written by means of a write laser beam with analogue or digital data in the form of thermally altered areas, whereafter the written data are read by means of a read laser beam, including: analyzing the light transmitted or reflected by the recording material, and reading the data by determining the polarization-optical contrast between the thermally altered and the unaltered areas and/or utilizing for this purpose the interference of the light rays which form from the laser lightwaves in a Gaussian intensity distribution owing to the different phase velocities of the light in the center of thermally altered areas on the one hand and their thermally unaltered surroundings on the other.