Fiber Optics for Multilayered Optical Memory

We have developed a compact and high-power mode-locked fiber laser for multilayered optical memory. Fiber lasers have the potential to be compact and stable light sources that can replace bulk solid-state lasers. To generate high-power pulses, we used stretched-pulse mode locking. The average power and pulse width of the output pulse from the fiber laser that we developed were 109 mW and 2.1 ps, respectively. The dispersion of the output pulse was compensated with an external single-mode fiber of 2.5 m length. The pulse was compressed from 2.1 ps to 93 fs by dispersion compensation. The fiber laser we have developed is possible to use as a light source of multilayered optical memory. We also present a fiber confocal microscope as an alignment-free readout system of multilayered optical memories. The fiber confocal microscope does not require fine pinhole position alignment because the fiber core is used as the point light source and the pinhole, and both of which are always located at the conjugated point. The configuration reduces the required accuracy of pinhole position alignment. With these techniques we can present an all-fiber recording and readout system for multilayered memories.