Efficient Thermal Modeling of Optical Disk Recording

In order to accurately predict mark shapes on recordable optical disks so that write strategies can be more effectively evaluated and optimized, a model for the temperature distribution is required that takes into account heat flow. Thermal modeling is especially important for high-density recording since heat flow effects become more important as mark densities increase. In a few special cases, it is possible to obtain analytical solutions for the temperature in terms of known functions [1-5]. However, for most situations of practical interest, these solutions are not appropriate and some numerical work is required. A precise determination of mark shapes is then time consuming whether one uses semi-analytical solutions that are in integral form [6-12] or purely numerical methods, such as finite differences [13-16] or finite elements [17,18].