Beyond Blu-ray: Sony Develops New Laser for Optical Storage

Sony and Tohoku University in Japan have developed a new blue-violet laser system that can store up to 20 times more data on an optical disc than the current Blu-ray standard.

According to the press release published jointly by Sony and Tohoku University, the new system uses a laser with a power of 3 W and a wavelength of 405 nanometres - just like the beam used in Blu-ray technology. Every nanosecond (frequency = 1 GHz), an optical pulse of 3 picoseconds (3 x 10^-12 seconds) is generated. As shown in the diagram above, an optical amplifier is located at the very end of the setup, which boosts the power of the laser from 3 W to 100 W. This allows the system to write and then read back void marks with a diameter of around 300 nanometres at intervals of 3 micrometres (3 x 10^-6 metres) on the optical disc.

The storage capacity should therefore be considerably increased, reaching up to 1 TB of data on just one disc. Unfortunately, Sony hasn't given any further details about the system or a potential release date.

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