Abstract: An optical data storage system comprises a multiple data surface medium and optical head. The medium comprises a plurality of substrates separated by a light transmissive medium. Data surfaces are located on the substrate surfaces which lie adjacent a light transmissive medium. The data surfaces are substantially light transmissive. The optical head includes an aberration compensator to allow the head to focus onto the different data surfaces and a filter to screen out unwanted reflected light.

Abstract: An optical disk drive with a multiple data layer optical disk uses computed axial velocity values of the data layers to optimize the interlayer transition of the focused light beam. In the preferred embodiment, the axial velocities of the data layers are computed for a set of radial and angular positions on the data layer surfaces using one of several techniques. The data layer axial velocity values are computed from the measured current values to the voice coil motor focus actuator or from the output of the detector that generates the focus error signal (FES). A routine is run at disk drive startup, or at various times during disk drive operation, to measure the coil current or FES at different radial and angular positions and compute the axial velocity values. The computed axial velocity values are then mapped into memory storage according to addresses corresponding to their radial and angular positions.

Abstract: An optical data storage system comprises a multiple data surface medium and optical head. The medium comprises a plurality of substrates separated by a light transmissive medium. Data surfaces are located on the substrate surfaces which lie adjacent a light transmissive medium. The data surfaces are substantially light transmissive. The optical head includes an aberration compensator to allow the head to focus onto the different data surfaces and a filter to screen out unwanted reflected light.

Abstract: An optical data storage system comprises a multiple data surface medium and optical head. The medium comprises a plurality of substrates separated by a light transmissive medium. Data surfaces are located on the substrate surfaces. A layer of a dye material is deposited onto each of the data surfaces. The thickness of the dye layer determines the amount of reflectivity for each of the data surfaces.

Abstract: An optical data storage system comprises a multiple data surface medium and optical head. The medium comprises a plurality of substrates separated by a light transmissive medium. Data surfaces are located on the substrate surfaces which lie adjacent a light transmissive medium. The data surfaces are substantially light transmissive. The optical head includes an aberration compensator to allow the head to focus onto the different data surfaces and a filter to screen out unwanted reflected light.

Abstract: A magnetooptical disk has two axially space-apart translucent recording layers. Each translucent recording layer is axially closer to an outer surface of the disk than to the other recording layer. This geometry enables closely axially disposing a magnetic field biasing means to each of the recording layers from opposite axial sides of the disk, respectively. Laser beams are axially introduced into the disk to pass through one of the translucent recording layers in a defocussed state to reach a second recording layer in a focussed state. In this manner, recording in the second layer is effected by a modulated magnetic bias field using a constant intensity laser beam. Two sets of laser beams and magnetic biasing means are provided for recording on both data in both of the recording layers.

Abstract: An optical data storage system comprises a multiple data surface medium and optical head. The medium comprises a plurality of substrates separated by a light transmissive medium. Data surfaces are located on the substrate surfaces which lie adjacent a light transmissive medium. The data surfaces are substantially light transmissive. The optical head includes an aberration compensator to allow the head to focus onto the different data surfaces and a filter to screen out unwanted reflected light.

Abstract: An optical data storage system comprises a multiple data surface medium and optical head. The medium comprises a plurality of substrates separated by a light transmissive medium. Data surfaces are located on the substrate surfaces which lie adjacent a light transmissive medium. The data surfaces are substantially light transmissive. The optical head includes an aberration compensator to allow the head to focus onto the different data surfaces and a filter to screen out unwanted reflected light.

Abstract: An optical data storage system uses an optical medium made of a stack of spaced-apart optical disks. Each disk in the stack is made of light-transmissive material, such as polycarbonate when the system is a CD-ROM system, and has a partially light-transmissive data layer on at least one of its faces. A focusing lens in the system focuses light to the data layers along optical paths, with each data layer corresponding to a unique optical path length. The light is focused to each data layer by reflection off adjacent data layers such that the total substrate thickness through which the light passes is the same for each optical path. In this manner, the fixed spherical aberration correction provided by the focusing lens is adequate and variable aberration correction is not necessary.

Abstract: An optical data storage system comprises a multiple data surface medium and optical head. The medium comprises a plurality of substrates separated by a light transmissive medium. Data surfaces are located on the substrate surfaces which lie adjacent a light transmissive medium. The data surfaces are substantially light transmissive. The optical head includes an aberration compensator to allow the head to focus onto the different data surfaces and a filter to screen out unwanted reflected light.

Abstract: An optical data storage system comprises a multiple data surface medium and optical head. The medium comprises a plurality of substrates separated by a light transmissive medium. Data surfaces are located on the substrate surfaces which lie adjacent a light transmissive medium. The data surfaces are substantially light transmissive. The optical head includes an aberration compensator to allow the head to focus onto the different data surfaces and a filter to screen out unwanted reflected light.

Abstract: A method for optically measuring at least one characteristic of a thin film on a reflecting substrate. A p-polarized beam of collimated light of known intensity is directed through an integrating sphere onto the film at substantially the Brewster's angle of the film. All the light is reflected into the sphere, including all diffusely reflected light as well as the light specularly reflected at a region inside the sphere where the specularly reflected light is incident. A reflective surface is provided for determining the thickness of the film as a function of the total intensity of light sensed within the sphere. An absorptive surface is provided at said region for absorbing the specularly reflected light for determining the porosity or surface roughness of the film based on the intensity of the diffused light sensed within the sphere not reflected from the substrate.