OPTICAL INFORMATION RECORDING APPARATUS

摘要

PURPOSE: To provide an optical data storage device whose information storage capacity is larger than that of a conventional data storage device. CONSTITUTION: Information elements are stored in the volume of a transmission layer instead of being stored on the surface of the layer. Different plural information strings are respectively stored in the different plural hierarcies of the transmission layer. Write/read means are designed so that a light beam is converged in the plane of a prescribed hierarchy without being converged in other hierarchies. Variations of light beams respectively generated in individual hierarchies are selectively detected by photodetectors. The layer of the optical transmission material is desirable to be a material inducing the changing of a refractive index by light.