Prospects in Wide-Gap Semiconductor Lasers

Abstract

Compact blue and green semiconductor lasers will impact significantly on such technologies as optical storage and multicolor displays. The availability of a blue semiconductor laser near 450 nm, in conjunction with improvements in encoding topology and superresolution (transcending diffraction limits), is expected to increase the bit density in a compact disk by at least tenfold from that available in today’s consumer electronic equipment. Disk storage densities of up to 10 GBit/in² are projected over the next decade, comparable to expectations with magnetic disks. Motion pictures, multimedia presentations etc will be among the direct beneficiaries for a portable medium such as the CD-ROM, linked closely to personal computer technology. Optical disk technology in general is destined for explosive growth; for example, compact terabyte data storage has been demonstrated in an optical disk “jukebox”.