The study of crystallization acceleration effect of the interface layer for phase-change optical disks

From CD to DVD, higher data transfer rate was a difficult property for phase-change optical disks to achieve. A complicated layer structure was developed to achieve high crystallization rate of recording material for high erasing rate. The study of Yamada et al (Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. vol. 37, pt. 1, p. 413, 1998) showed that adding an interface layer can accelerate the crystallization rate of recording materials. For the next generation of HD-DVD, data transfer rate will be even higher than DVD. Higher erasing rate will be required. In this study, we used germanium nitride (GeN), aluminum nitride (AlN) and silicon carbide (SiC) as interface materials to study the crystallization acceleration effect. A disk with ZnS-SiO₂ as dielectric layer was used for comparison. The onset time of crystallization rate is affected by the interface layer. Dynamic tester data was collected to compare with the static tester results.