THERMO-OPTICAL PROCESS FOR INFORMATION RECORDING, RECORD CARRIER FOR CARRYING OUT THIS PROCESS AND APPARATUS TO READ THIS RECORD CARRIER

摘要

Thermo-optical writing of information used for such applications as archival storage is performed on a medium in which a ductile metal film layer is stretched beyond the elastic limit under the pressure exerted by a contiguous layer of thermally deforming organic substance and is partially permeable to radiation produced by a light beam. An optical cavity formed between the ductile layer and a reflecting metal film layer is tuned so that the reflection factor of the information medium at the light-radiation wavelength increases with the deformation induced by the light beam.