Optical disc

An optical disc is a flat, usually disc-shaped object that stores information in the form of physical variations on its surface that can be read with the aid of a beam of light. Optical discs can be reflective, where the light source and detector are on the same side of the disc, or transmissive, where light shines through the disc to be detected on the other side. They may contain analog or digital information, or a mixture of the two. Their main uses are the distribution of media and data, and long-term archival storage.

The encoding material sits atop a thicker substrate (usually polycarbonate) that makes up the bulk of the disc and forms a dust defocusing layer. The encoding pattern follows a continuous, spiral path covering the entire disc surface and extending from the innermost track to the outermost track.

The data are stored on the disc with a laser or stamping machine, and can be accessed when the data path is illuminated with a laser diode in an optical disc drive that spins the disc at speeds of about 200 to 4,000 RPM or more, depending on the drive type, disc format, and the distance of the read head from the center of the disc (outer tracks are read at a higher data speed due to higher linear velocities at the same angular velocities).

Most optical discs exhibit a characteristic iridescence as a result of the diffraction grating formed by their grooves. This side of the disc contains the actual data and is typically coated with a transparent material, usually lacquer.

The reverse side of an optical disc usually has a printed label, sometimes made of paper but often printed or stamped onto the disc itself. Unlike the 31⁄2-inch floppy disk, most optical discs do not have an integrated protective casing and are therefore susceptible to data transfer problems due to scratches, fingerprints, and other environmental problems. Blu-rays have a coating called durabis that mitigates these problems.

Optical discs have been offered between 7.6 and 30 cm (3.0 and 11.8 in) in diameter, with 12 cm (4.7 in) becoming the dominant size beginning 1997.. The so-called program area that contains the data commonly starts 25 millimeters away from the center point. A typical disc is about 1.2 mm (0.047 in) thick, while the track pitch (distance from the center of one track to the center of the next) ranges from 1.6 μm (for CDs) to 320 nm (for Blu-ray discs).

An optical disc is designed to support one of three recording types: read-only (such as CD and CD-ROM), recordable (write-once, like CD-R), or re-recordable (rewritable, like CD-RW). Write-once optical discs commonly have an organic dye (may also be a (phthalocyanine) azo dye, mainly used by Verbatim, or an oxonol dye, used by Fujifilm) recording layer between the substrate and the reflective layer. Rewritable discs typically contain an alloy recording layer composed of a phase change material, most often AgInSbTe, an alloy of silver, indium, antimony, and tellurium. Azo dyes were introduced in 1996 and phthalocyanine only began to see wide use in 2002. The type of dye and the material used on the reflective layer on an optical disc may be determined by shining a light through the disc, as different dye and material combinations have different colors.

Blu-ray Disc recordable discs do not usually use an organic dye recording layer, instead using an inorganic recording layer. Those that do are known as low-to-high (LTH) discs and can be made in existing CD and DVD production lines, but are of lower quality than traditional Blu-ray recordable discs.