The concept of phase-change recording is straightforward. An intense laser or current pulse heats ... convincingly demonstrate that on rather slow cooling of the melt, the crystalline rock-salt ...

laser pulses change the structural phase of the surface material. The recording marks in disks are created by first melting the material with the laser and then rapidly cooling the molten material ...

Phase change cooling creates subzero temperatures as low as -100 degrees Centigrade, but the humidity created by condensation is a side effect that has to be dealt with. Phase change cooling has ...

In rewritable phase change media, the heat from a short, high-intensity laser pulse turns a bit in the recording layer into an unstructured "amorphous" state, and a medium-intensity pulse sets it ...