Abstract

Phase change optical storage is the most promising alternative to magneto-optical recording. This technology is an all-optical one and has a much better signal to noise ratio and a simpler reading mechanism that simplifies the optical head. This leads to a decrease in the access time and to make the phase change disks interchangeable with the earlier optical storage products, the CDROM and WORM discs. The most significant drawback with phase-change materials has been the need for materials with highspeed crystallization, crystallization triggered by <100 ns laser pulses being usually required.

© 1994 IEEE