High-Density Phase-Change Recording

In recent years the phase-change optical recording technology has advanced remarkably and has become a very attractive alternative to the magneto-optic technology for erasable optical recording systems. In particular, the discovery of rapidly crystallizing material systems such as Ge-Sb-Te and Ag-In-Sb-Te accelerated the realization of a rewritable phase-change optical disc. Last year, the 'PD' system was introduced and in the second half of 1996 Philips et al. will launch the 'CD-Erasable' system, a phase-change technology for data applications, having a high degree of compatibility with the read-only CD-system.