Dynamic volume holography and optical information processing by Raman scattering

A method of producing holograms of three-dimensional (3D) optical pulses is proposed. It is shown that both the amplitude and the phase profile of 3D optical pulse can be stored in dynamic perturbations of a Raman medium, such as plasma. By employing Raman scattering in a nonlinear medium, information carried by a laser pulse can be captured in the form of a slowly propagating low-frequency wave that persists for a time large compared with the pulse duration. If such a hologram is then probed with a short laser pulse, the information stored in the medium can be retrieved in a second scattered electromagnetic wave. The recording and retrieving processes can conserve robustly the pulse shape, thus enabling the recording and retrieving with fidelity of information stored in optical signals. While storing or reading the pulse structure, the optical information can be processed as an analog or digital signal, which allows simultaneous transformation of 3D continuous images or computing discrete arrays of binary data. By adjusting the phase fronts of the reference pulses, one can also perform focusing, redirecting, and other types of transformation of the output pulses.