Pieter Zalm

Communications: Ten billion bits on a disk: High-power laser diodes and pregrooved disks enable low-cost digital data recording and retrieval

Describes a compact optical disc system being developed by Philips as an offshoot of optical video-disc technology which uses high-power AlGaAs laser diodes. The recorder resembles strongly in concept consumer optical video-disc and audio-disc players. It gives random-access times, both in recording and in reading, similar to those obtained with present magnetic discs. Information capacities of over 1010 bits per 30-cm disc have been achieved, with a mean access time of 70 ms and recording bit rates of 10 Mb/s. Raw bit error rates between 10-5 and 10-6 have been measured.

Summary Abstract: Research On Materials For Optical Storage

In the course of time we have investigated different kinds of materials which change their optical properties after exposure to laser light. Our main effort, however, has been concentrated on films of crystalline Te and its amorphous compounds. These materials were also used for experiments on the mechanism of hole opening.© (1981) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.