Numerical simulation of mark formation in dual-stack phase-change recording

Dual-stack phase-change recording is an option to further increase the data capacity of rewritable optical disks. Such disks consist of two recording stacks that are both recorded and read from the same side of the disk. Consequently, the first recording stack needs therefore to be semitransparent to allow recording in the second recording stack. Thick nontransparent metal layers can therefore not be used in the first recording stack, which makes the first recording stack the most challenging stack from a thermal point of view. A numerical model based on crystal growth was developed to study formation and erasure of amorphous marks in phase-change stacks that are based on fast-growth doped SbTe phase-change materials. The validity of the model was demonstrated from transmission electron microscopy analyses of recorded marks that showed a good correspondence with the calculated mark shapes in a conventional single-stack recording stack. The model was subsequently applied to analyze formation and erasure of marks in slow-cooling phase-change stacks for digital versatile disk, (DVD) and digital video recording (DVR) recording conditions. The effect of the recording velocity, the erase power, and the crystal growth velocity on the erasability of amorphous marks was simulated. The calculated phenomena are in good agreement with the phenomena observed from DVD and DVR erasability measurements. Mark formation in slow-cooling recording stacks is characterized by severe recrystallization during writing. Two possible solutions are indicated in this article, aiming at reducing the heat accumulation and the resulting recrystallization during writing of amorphous marks. Additional semitransparent heat sinks improve the mark formation considerably but also require higher write powers. Another solution is the application of modified write strategies. Modeling and recorder results are discussed for both approaches.