MATERIALS FOR ERASABLE OPTICAL DISKS

After a brief review of the optical disks which are at present on the market: Compact Disk Read Only Memory (CD-ROM), Write Once Read Many (WORM) disks, Write Erasable Magneto optical (WEMO) disks, we give the results of the laser Write Erasable (WE) materials. Disks based on phase-change erasable optical recording media (chalcogenide alloys, dye polymers) are presented. Recent progress in realizing practical media for phase-change reversible optical recording are described. More information is given on new thin film materials for optical recording such as anthraquinone derivatives.