Photonics Dictionary

The storage of information via optical means, primarily employing a low-power laser to inscribe data on a photosensitive surface as pits or phase differences and to read such data via reflected light...

A technique of optical storage whereby information is encoded by molecular alterations in the interaction between the optical layer and the substrate.

A method of erasable optical data storage in which information is stored by visible light, then read by illumination with an infrared source that returns trapped electrons to their ground state....

Magneto-optics refers to the study and manipulation of the interaction between magnetic fields and light (electromagnetic radiation). This field of physics explores how the properties of light, such...

Generic term for read-only optical data storage, source of the Philips-Sony term CD-ROM.

A method of producing disks for erasable optical data storage. Information is recorded by a laser beam that generates pits on the surface of the disk while it is being cryogenically cooled. Erasure...

The micrometer-size depressions that store data digitally in an optical data storage medium.

In an optical data storage system, denoting the optical head's ability both to record information and to detect it for playback.

An optical data storage device that permits the user to store data (write) and play it back (read), but not to erase or change the stored material.