Low energy-density recording with a high-repetition-rate laser beam in gold-nanorod-embedded discs

In this paper, we report on the low energy-density recording with a high-repetition-rate femtosecond pulsed beam in homogenous gold-nanorod-dispersed discs by using low numerical aperture (NA) microoptics. By focusing a femtosecond pulsed beam at a repetition rate of 82 MHz using a low NA DVD optical head, the spatially-stretched energy density introduces a temperature rising of the polymer matrix. This temperature rising facilitates the surface melting of gold nanorods, which leads to over one-order-of-magnitude reduction in the energy-density threshold for recording, compared with that by focusing single pulses through a high NA objective. Applying this finding, we demonstrate the dual-layer recording in gold-nanorod-dispersed discs with an equivalent capacity of 69 GB. Our results demonstrate the potential of ultra-high density three-dimensional optical memory with a low-cost and DVD-compatible apparatus. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America