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Dear IEEE,

The recent work of Professor Peyghambarian and his colleagues at Arizona on novel photorefractive materials is impressive, indeed. He has been a major contributor to the field for many years and his publications attest to his brilliance and creativity. My only concern for readers is to appreciate that the field pertaining to the photorefractive effect, it materials, its fundamental properties, and novel applications has been the topic of intense international research for many decades now. In fact, one of the first potential applications was in the field of dynamic holographic storage and retrieval. And, related research on storage persistence, multiple holographic exposures and optical erasure has been the topic of many papers and conference presentations over the past decades. Many reference textbooks have been published over the years devoted entirely to this exciting area (since the 1980s), as have popular articles in magazines such as Scientific American, myriad topical conferences and publications and issued patents. This, by no means whatsoever, is meant to take away any credit from Professor Peyghambarian and his group for their excellent and continued research efforts. In fact, my comment may be more of a reflection on the editors of IEEE Spectrum for not placing matters in its proper context. Granted, space limitations for such news items place constraints on the length of articles, but should not be at the expense of perspective.

Sincerely,
David M. Pepper, PhD