We have demonstrated volumetric optical recording using an all-semiconductor picosecond laser, which generated optical pulses with a duration of 3 ps and a maximum peak power of 100 W at a wavelength of 404 nm and a repetition frequency of 1 GHz. This pulsed laser system efficiently induced multiphoton absorption in the recording media due to its high peak power and high repetition rate. The recording marks were formed as submicrometer voids inside a single thick recording layer by multiphoton absorption. A clear readout signal was obtained from the recorded marks.

We demonstrated volumetric optical recording with void marks in a bulk recording medium using a newly developed all-semiconductor picosecond laser. The laser is compact and has an ultrahigh peak power, which is necessary for practical application of the volumetric optical recording system. We confirmed the laser to be able to record void marks effectively on our recording media. The laser was implemented to our optical drive system as a light source and as much as 30 layer void-mark recording was carried out on the 200-µm-thick bulk recording medium. The total recording capacity was 97 Gbyte and the bit error rates (bERs) were measured to be on the order of 10-4 for most of the layers. We believe that this was a significant step to realize a practical volumetric optical recording system.

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