S.

SINGARAVADIVELU, DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS, SSN COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

Working principle of CD-ROM

CD-ROM is an optical disk and contains data that can only be read.
The data is recorded in the optical disk by the manufacturer. We can’t write
or erase data from CD-ROM. CD-ROM stands for Compact Disk-Read Only
Memory. CD-ROM is used primarily for pre-recorded data such as
government statistics, encyclopaedias, and dictionaries. A CD-ROM has
three layers. CD-ROM has transparent substrate on its base. On the base,
there is a reflecting layer and this reflecting layer stores data. On the
reflecting layer, there is a protective coating.

The information to be stored is digitized, that is, the data can be

represented by binary numbers, which are made up of '1' and '0' digits.
This information is stored on the metal layer. The data is represented using
pits (1) and space between pits is called land (0).
Laser beam is used for storing data on
CD-ROM. Data is stored on a single spiral
track. Each track is divided into sector. The
track has length of 5 km and 650 mb of data
can be stored. The tracks have high density
with a gap of 1.6 microns. Laser beam is
used to read the data from compact disk.
CD is moving on a head at very high rpm. A
laser is allowed to fall onto the reflective
surface of the disc to read the pattern of
pits (1) and lands (0). The depth of the pits is approximately one-quarter
to one-sixth of the wavelength of the laser light used to read the disc. The
laser rays reflected by the pits and the lands have a path difference of half
the wavelength. It leads to destructive interference, means, the two rays
cancel each other and no reflected ray is resulted, and this produces a '1'
digit. The path difference is zero for two rays both reflected by the pits, or
both by the lands. No destructive interference occurs and we say it is a '0'
digit. Therefore we have digit '1' at the edge of pits and digit '0' elsewhere.
S. SINGARAVADIVELU, DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS, SSN COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
 S. SINGARAVADIVELU, DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS, SSN COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF A COMPACT DISC

The adjacent figure

shows a typical compact disc.
The diameter of the disc is
120 mm. The center hole is 15
mm in diameter. The area
closest to the center hole is
the clamping area, and no
data is written in this area.
The clamping area is
generally 26 mm to 33 mm
wide, measured from the
center of the disc. The data
area is approximately 38 mm
wide and is divided into three sections. A single CD-ROM can store over
500 megabytes. The CD-ROM can store audio, video, graphics, text, and
programs. CD-ROMs that combine different types of data (audio, graphics,
and so on) are known as CD-I, or compact disc-interactive. Since the CD-
ROM is an optical storage medium, the read head never comes in contact
with the disc. Therefore, it does not suffer from damage caused by head
crashes.

Write-once-Read-Many disks

WORM disks are produced by the manufacturer using an integrated

optical focusing system. The user who buys such a disk is able to write what
he wants to write. However, once such disks have been written, no changes
can be made. Reading of stored data many times is possible using a low
power laser. Reading data in WORM disks is same as in the case of CD-ROM
disks. Banks use WORM disks to store transactions of each day. They can
be read many times but they cannot be altered.
 S. SINGARAVADIVELU, DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS, SSN COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

Magneto-optical (MO) data storage

Magneto-optical (MO)
storage combines two technologies
to give a storage medium that has
high data densities, durability, and
quick data transfers. MO drives
write magnetically (with thermal
assist) and read optically. MO
system is one of the rewritable
optical systems that can undergo a
very large number of write-erase
operations without any loss in
recording or reading quality. The
standard MO systems are available
in 5.5 inch and 3.5 inch size, well
protected by hard envelops. The
magnetically sensitive metallic
crystals are sandwiched between
thin layers of plastic present on the MO disk. The plastic covering prevents
magnetic crystals from moving. To write data, an intense laser beam is
focused on the surface of the medium. This melts the plastic coating enough
to allow a magnet to change the orientation of crystals.

Magnet materials have a physical property called a Curie temperature

above which they lose magnetization due to the complete disordering of
their magnetic domains. The magnet's coercivity decreases as the
temperature approaches the Curie point, and is zero thereafter. To record
data in a magneto optical device, a laser heats up the media, decreasing
the media's coercivity to a level that allows its magnetism to be modified
by a relatively weak magnetic field. Once the data is written, the area then
cools, and the magnetic data is not subject to modification or erasure by
magnetic forces encountered during our daily routine.
 S. SINGARAVADIVELU, DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS, SSN COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

Magneto-optic reading

The MO systems use polarized light and Kerr rotation to read the data
from the disc. The plane of polarization changes (by 0.5˚) due to the
presence of magnetic field produced by the crystals on the surface of the
disk. If the magnetisation is reversed, the plane of polarization also gets
reversed. The change in the directions of magnetisation is associated with
the binary digits 0 and 1. The plane of polarization striking the rest of the
part of the media gets never changed.