Pico- and femtosecond photon echoes in doped low-temperature organic polymers and applications in time-space optical data processing

Abstract The phenomenon of burning of persistent photochemical holes in inhomogeneously broadened spectra of molecular impurities allows doped low-temperature organic polymers to be used as a recording medium of spectrally selective holograms. Ultimate temporal resolution of time domain holographic storage, Fourier-related to the inhomogeneous band width of the storage media was investigated by using femtosecond pulses generated by a colliding pulse mode locked dye laser. Recall of photochemically accumulated stimulated photon echo (PASPE) with pulse duration shorter than 100 fs was demonstrated in polystyrene doped with protoporphyrine at 1.8 K. Experiments presenting evidence of spectral diffusion in low temperature polystyrene as probed by PASPE and two-pulse photon echo are also reported.