Gigabyte data storage -what next for lasers?

摘要

Violet laser diodes are at last emerging from the niche market stage. Moving on from instrumentation and into the main-stream, they are at the core of new demonstrations of advanced digital VCRs. Competition is hotting up in this sector, with the future less clear than ever, thanks to higher capacity DVD formats and hard-disk drive machines. Longer term, holog-raphic data storage may see a revival, and the good news is that this could also require red and violet diode lasers. The CDROM market was reinvigorated by the-recordable, CD-R/RW, format. Despite great efforts and for a variety of reasons, CD-R did not catch on in the consumer sector. While CDROM has been displaced by DVD-ROM in the PC sector, CD-R is only just beginning to be displaced by DVD-R as unit prices come within reach of the mass market. There are parallels for the progression of the DVD market, as it transitions from play-only to record as well, and we can look forward to low cost dual-purpose machines within a year or so.