Attention is often given to the increased demand for communication bandwidth that enables modern society to function. Less attention is given to the challenges of storing increasing volumes of data. This book is first and foremost a presentation—in English—of work on optical data storage undertaken in its author’s laboratory since the early 1990s. However, the volume is primarily offered as a textbook for graduate students (albeit with no exercises to enable students to test their understanding).
This substantial volume certainly captures the breadth and depth of the challenges related to the development of multi-dimensional optical storage. There are some linguistic blemishes in the text, and several of the figures (seemingly imported from elsewhere) are of relatively poor quality. In the opinion of this reviewer, this book is best seen as a research monograph. It has potential for use by cross-disciplinary researchers aspiring to enhance optical storage capabilities.
Review by K. Alan Shore, Bangor University, School of Electronic Engineering, Wales, U.K.
The opinions expressed in the book review section are those of the reviewer and do not necessarily reflect those of OPN or OSA.