Acousto-optic parallel read/write head for optical disk data storage

Parallel read and write of optical disks has traditionally used a static grating for read or a linear array of independent lasers for read and write. Depending on the implementation, these systems suffer from coherent cross talk, excessive space between spots, and an inability to independently track. We show that a dynamic acousto-optic grating can generate multiple parallel read/write spots on the disk, each of which can be independently modulated and tracked and all of which are incoherent in less that a bit period. The resulting disk pickup can potentially reach gigabit per second transfer rates with only a modest increase in the drive complexity.