Abstract

Since 2006 we have started the study of volumetric recording on bulk recording media, we call it Micro-reflector, in order to achieve low cost and huge capacity optical disc system as the next generation of Blu-ray. In early stage of this project, we employed bit-by-bit holographic recording (i.e. micro-hologram) and demonstrated 10-layer recording[1]. Recently we adapted void formation recording as a recording principle[2], and demonstrated 34-layer recording corresponding to 200GB capacity using a titanium-sapphire (Ti:S) laser with a second harmonic generation (SHG) unit[3]. We utilized a 0.85 numerical aperture (NA) of the objective lens which was designed to achieve recording/readout in 50 to 300 μm cover glass thickness range[4]. In the last ISOM conference, we demonstrated a 30-layer recording/readout result of the void recording method by using a novel all-semiconductor 100W peak power 3-picosecond laser based on the mode-locked GaInN LD[5],[6], which opens the door to realize reasonable cost and reliable next generation optical disc storage system. In this paper, we review the Micro-Reflector optical disc system and report on an approach to investigate void formation recording mechanism with a computer simulation.

© 2011 Optical Society of America