HD-DVD and Blu-ray have not yet raised their heads and another new technology is here to make them redundant. The latest semiconductor laser technology, developed by researchers at Kyoto University, controls the shape of laser beams to deliver ten times more compact beams, ultimately increasing the storage capacity of optical discs by 10 times.
How does the concept work:
The ultra-thin laser beams thus produced automatically increases the data storage density on discs without changing the wavelength of the laser. The technology will lead to the production of discs with hundreds of gigabytes of capacity.The Kyoto University group, led by Professor Susumu Noda, worked with Kyoto-based Rohm Co., Ltd. and the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) to engineer layers of photonic crystals consisting of tens of thousands of small holes, which were incorporated into 0.5 mm x 0.5 mm semiconductor chips. The photonic crystal layer works as an optical resonator, with each individual hole functioning as a tiny mirror that causes the light to resonate in the semiconductor until it is emitted as laser light. The result is a laser beam with a diameter up to 10 times smaller and with properties different from those of conventional semiconductor lasers.
Via: pinktentacle
