Microstructural observation of organic thin film in optical recording

The microstructure of recorded organic thin film in optical recording is observed using several methods, ie. optical microscopy (OM),scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). From the microarea morphology images, it is found that bubbles are produced after laser irradiation of phthalocyanine film. The comparison between these methods indicates that STM can provide detailed three dimensional parameters of the film adding to what can be obtained from OM and SEM. The investigation on the micostructure of thin film has been proved to be an important aid to analyze the disk performance.