| Current digital information storage technologies offer rapid access and seemingly ever-increasing capacities. New storage techniques that improve the data rate of high-density storage technologies are attractive, particularly for cost-sensitive services such as video on demand. Wavelength multiplexing of optical information storage has the potential to increase storage capacity, density and data rate.;This dissertation addresses the design, simulation and fabrication of a multi-wavelength, multi-level optical storage structure that has the potential to increase the capacity, density and data rate of optical storage. Multi-wavelength, multi-layer optical storage is a technique for storing data in many separate layers in a medium, where each layer responds to a unique optical wavelength. This approach builds on the strengths of current optical storage technologies and addresses some of their limitations. Multiple layers of storage increase the high storage density possible with optical techniques and the parallelism of wavelength multiplexing improves the relatively low data rate.;Multi-wavelength, multi-level optical storage has been investigated theoretically and experimentally. The experimental results provide the first demonstration of optical storage using three wavelengths to read three separate layers of information. These read-only optical memories were based on dielectric mirrors of silicon dioxide, magnesium oxide and aluminum oxide. The layers were designed to be read with semiconductor lasers of 635, 780 and 980 nanometers. The prototype devices exhibited open margins between the on and off states for all eight combinations of the presence and absence of the three mirrors.;Theoretical simulations were employed to assess the dynamic operation of multi-wavelength storage devices. Through systematic simulations, variations in the thickness and refractive index of the layers in the structure were identified as the primary noise mechanism and a critical contributor to interlayer crosstalk. Error rate calculations, using both Monte Carlo and analytical methods, indicate that acceptable error rates are possible when the variations in the optical thickness of the layers are less than ${pm}5%.$ Error rates are dominated by crosstalk between layers, and features designed to reduce this crosstalk, including wavelength spacing, material selection and the addition of a novel anti-reflection coating, were critical to the proper operation of the prototype devices. |
