New phase‐change rewritable optical recording film having well suppressed material flow for repeated rewriting

Characteristics of a phase‐change optical disk using a (Ge–Sb–Te)‐(Cr–Te) recording film containing a high‐melting‐point component Cr–Te are studied. The high‐melting‐point component Cr–Te precipitates in the recording film, and prevents a material flow of the recording film during repeated rewrites in which the recording film is melted. There is no drawback such as noise increase by the addition of Cr–Te. Thus the phase‐change optical disk using this recording film shows very small distortion in the reproduced signal wave form even after 2×104 rewrites of high‐density recording signals that are liable to cause the material flow by forming long and short recording marks on the disk. With a phase‐change optical disk, it is easy to overwrite (rewrite without prior erasure) information, which makes it highly suitable for digital recording of motion pictures and sound. They are expected to be used as rewritable compact disks, rewritable CD‐ROM disks, rewritable video disks, and small recording media for personal computers.