Development of fluorescent multilayer disc structure

Abstract

The fluorescent multilayer disc (FMD) consists of a substrate and the sandwich-structure of information and intermediate layers. While all the structure of the disc is transparent and homogeneous the parasitic signal will be caused mostly by photoluminescence (PL) and absorption of pits areas where laser light is unfocused. At large number of layers (10 or more) the noise level will get significant value, so it was suggested to derive readout signal as a variable one. Also it was proposed to record information only by the lands, to decrease the absorbance level and thus uncontrolled changing of the noise level. Furthermore in the FMD information layer there are inner and outside peripheral areas which hold a stable level of parasitic signal during readout from the edges of the disc. While the PL readout signal is spatially isotropic the optical head of the FMD drive receives just a part of the probing beam energy. PL quantum yield, absorption factor, receiver systems exposure loss coefficients are other reasons of the low PL signal. Thus the problem of the low SNR in this case is a major one and the only way of its solving is synthesis of the dye with a high PL quantum yield. The PL relaxation time on the other hand is a main feature of the data reading rate and therefore selection of the appropriate recording material will allow to bring this parameter in accordance to parameters of modern optical discs. To achieve this goal the composite organic pyrazoline dyes where synthesized and investigated as effective medium with a PL quantum yield up to 60-70%, relaxation time less than 100 ns, PL wide spectrum and opportunity of two-photon absorption. These parameters were further improved by a method based on the performance of organic dye molecules in the zeolite matrix.