Optical Data-Processing Devices

FIGURE 8.4. Yield rate of various display types on the Japanese market (billion yen/year) [16] ED are electroluminiscent displays (35%, grows to the year 1995) PD are plasma displays (17%) VFD are vacuum fluorescent dislays (10%) LCD are liquid crystal displays (33% (optimistic) and 18% (pessimistic) forecast) and CRT are cathode ray tube displays (6%). 

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Optical Data-Processing Devices 443 TABLE 8.7. Comparative characteristics of liquid crystal light valves [21]. 

High demands are placed on the substrate material of disk-shaped optical data storage devices regarding the optical, physical, chemical, mechanical, and thermal properties. In addition to these physical parameters, they have to meet special requirements regarding optical purity of the material, processing characteristics, and especially in mass production, economic characteristics (costs, processing). The question of recyclabiUty must also be tackled. 

Since the realization of the first laser 40 years ago, the merging of the fields of quantum electronics and quantum optics has stimulated the development of many new materials and devices. These, in turn, support a flourishing optoelectronics market for optical communications, optical data processing, medical diagnostics, materials processing, display technology, and many other applications. 

From the optical standpoint the outstanding properties of dynamic scattering are that it can be electrically controlled in two dimensions and the active motion of the scattering centers. By utilizing the property that dynamic scattering can be electrically controlled, it is possible to build electrooptic devices with transmission characteristics that can be controlled in two dimensions and as a function of time. Such devices can lead to new real time techniques in ultrasonic and microwave holography and in coherent optics data processing. 

By the sol-gel-process, inorganic glassy and hybrid polymeric materials are accessible at comparatively low temperatures [1], Therefore, organic molecules or dyes can easily be incorporated into the oxide matrix. This combination is especially attractive for the development of the following devices optical filters, solid-state lasers, optical switches, nonlinear optical laser hosts, optical data storage media, and photoconductive devices and films [2]. 

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