Patent ID: 7209270

Claim:
A holographic storage apparatus for recording data in a holographic medium including: at least one light source for generating a reference beam and a signal beam, the reference beam being a phase correlation beam of unchanging phase content; a holographic medium having at least a first face and placed in a path of the reference beam and a path of the signal beam such that both the reference beam and the signal beam enter the holographic medium through the first face to interfere in the holographic medium to create a hologram; a filter block having an absorptive face and a reflective face, wherein the absorptive face includes an opaque filter positioned in the path of the reference beam, and the reflective face includes a signal beam reflective surface positioned in the path of the signal beam; a data sensor for detecting an output beam; the holographic medium further including a data reflective surface such that in reading information stored in the holographic medium both the reference beam and the output beam pass through the first face of the holographic medium; and wherein in reading information stored in the holographic medium the reference beam is spatially separated from the output beam such that substantially no portion of the reference beam strikes the data sensor.