Breakthrough in Blue Lasers Yields 10X Write Times

The highest capacity optical storage devices and DVD recorders all use blue lasers -- and offer only poky write times in the range of 2X to 4X. New high-powered blue lasers could change that in a hurry

Nichia Corp. of Japan has broken the speed record for writing Blu-ray discs.
The company has announced a new blue-violet laser that can fill up a 54GB double-layer disc at more than 10X record speed. Currently shipping Blu-ray and HD-DVD format disc recorders are mostly of the 2X variety, though a few can boast 4X speed.

The difference from today’s 2X record times to 10X, based on future availability of the high-speed lasers, will be remarkable, according to blue laser expert Steven DenBaars, professor of materials and co-director of the Solid-State Lighting Center at the University of California Santa Barbara. As an example, today’s 2X blue-laser-based DVD recorders require about 50 minutes to write a disc containing a full-length DVD movie, DenBaars said, while a 10X laser could accomplish the task in about 10 minutes.view site