LPT presented recently obtained results in optical data storage at an Industry Workshop suggesting that a practical holographic material is at last available. LPT has developed MEMPLEX^TM with financial assistance from the U.S. Air Force as an ultrahigh capacity holographic data storage material. LPT was invited to present its results at the Optoelectronics Industry Development Association’s (OIDA) "High Throughput Optical Data Storage Systems Workshop" held in June 2000 and participate as industrial experts in sessions devoted to this rapidly emerging field.

Holography has long been recognized as a very promising technique by which to store large amounts of data in a small amount of material. While many holographic materials have been (and are being) investigated for use in data storage, all materials fall short of the necessary practical requirements. Virtually all materials experience a phenomena known as "shrinkage" – the tendency of a material to shrink when written to with laser beams. These morphological changes result in optical distortions which interfere with data storage applications. Another problem that is common to most materials is that only thin (hundreds of microns) layers can be fabricated; this limits the inherent capacity of candidate materials and the materials ability to resolve adjacent holograms.

MEMPLEX^TM has been developed over the last five years and has been engineered to overcome the problems described above. The material can be made as thick as several cm, has very low optical scattering, and does not experience any measurable shrinkage. MEMPLEX^TM is a free-standing material that is hard (scratch resistant), thermally stable (tolerant to more than 200 degrees Celsius), and is manufactured using methods amenable to high volume production.