METHOD OF RECORDING, REPRODUCING AND ERASING INFORMATION ON AN OPTICAL DISK

Abstract: The method employs an optical disk having V-shaped grooves formed by respective slant faces. First and second laser beams are focused, by an objective lens, into respective spots (1, 2) on the respective adjoining slant faces (C, D) of a groove for recording and reproducing information. A third laser beam is focused, by the same lens into at least one spot (3) on the bottom of the V-shaped groove for concurrently erasing information on the adjoining slant faces (C, D). The disk comprises recording material for enabling recording by heating and fast cooling and erasing by heating and slow cooling.

Description: The present invention relates to a method of recording, reproducing and erasing information on an optical disk. There are commercially available "Optical Video Disks" from which video signals are reproduced by way of focusing a laser beam on the optical disk. An optical disk of 30 cm in diameter with a record of frequency modulated television signals at a track pitch of 1.67 µm has a duration of 30 minutes at a turning speed of 1800 RPM for the reproduction of recorded signals on each side. A method has been developed for recording and reproducing signals in the same way as for the video tape by the provision of a thin film of recording material (e.g., tellurium sub-oxide film) on the surface of the optical disk, and it is expected that this will enable expansion to a "Recording/Reproduction Video Disk". Moreover, due to its non-contact operation that brings semi-permanent service life and high-speed access faster than a VTR (VCR), extensive applications in computer peripheral devices such as "Data Files" are expected. At the recent state of the art, Video Disk can reproduce higher quality pictures than household VTRs. A new method is being researched which records and reproduces a video signal on a video tape through the process of digitisation and band compression. Digitisation of household VTR recording will therefore be seen in the not too distant future. On this account, it is desirable to improve methods of recording and reproducing high-quality information, such as digital video signals, on a real-time basis, on an optical disk. From Japanese laid-open specification No. 57-105828 it is known to provide a method of recording and reproducing by laser beams on an optical disk, which method employs an optical disk having V-shaped grooves formed by respective slant faces and which method includes the steps of focusing, by means of an objective lens, first and second laser beams into respective spots on respective adjoining first and second slant faces of a groove on said disk and using said first and second laser beams for recording and reproducing information signals concurrently and independently. In order to record, reproduce or erase information on a medium, it is known to use a thin film of tellurium sub-oxide mixed with an additive (refer to Japanese Patent Laid-open specifications Nos. 56-145530, 56-153540, and 56-163528). The thin film can have a high refractivity (e.g., in a crystalline state) by being cooled slowly after it has been heated to a high temperature, or conversely, can have a low refractivity (e.g., in a noncrystalline or amorphous state) by being cooled quickly after it has been heated to a high temperature. Thus, in order for such an operation, the material is put in the high refractivity state in advance by a heat treatment or the like, and information can be recorded by the heat-and-quick-cool process using a small laser spot, and information can be erased by the heat-and-slow-cool process using an elliptical laser spot or by irradiation of two or more laser spots consecutively. The invention allows the erasure of signals based on the above-mentioned principle. According to JP-A-56-153 540 a plurality of spots are aligned along the track The present invention is characterised by: (a) using a disk comprising a recording material which enables recording by heating and fast cooling and which enables erasing by heating and slow cooling, and (b) focusing, by means of the same objective lens, a third laser beam into at least one spot on the bottom of the V-shaped groove, the latter spot having a lateral extent sufficient for concurrently erasing information signals recorded on said adjoining slant faces by the first and second laser beams. Embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to some of the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is a sectional perspective view showing the structure of an optical disk provided with V-shaped grooves; Fig. 2 is a diagram showing laser spots on the optical disk; Fig. 3 is a diagram explaining a basic optical system which can embody the invention; Fig. 4 is a diagram showing the arrangement of reproducing photo-sensors; the reproducing photo-sensors; Fig. 5 is a diagram explaining the method of tracking control; Fig. 6 is a diagram showing a spiral V-shape groove on the optical disk; Figs. 7a, 8a and 8b are diagrams explaining the second embodiment of the present optical system; Figs. 9a and 9b are diagrams showing laser spots on the optical disk of the embodiment; Fig. 10 is a graph showing the laser intensity distribution on the optical disk of the embodiment; Fig. 11 is a diagram showing the arrangement of reproducing photo-sensors of the embodiments; On the surface of the optical disk, V-shape grooves as shown in Fig. 1 are formed so that the all slants of the grooves are used as signal recording tracks. The grooves are made at an interval, for example, equal to the track pitch of the currently available video disk. Using at least two laser sources, laser spots 1 and 2 are projected in the central portions of two adjoining slants such as A and B, or C and D in Fig. 1, as shown in Fig. 2. The laser beams are activated individually so that separate signals are recorded on two adjoining slants concurrently. When signals on one slant of the V-shape groove are reproduced by the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open specification No. 57-105828, crosstalk from the adjacent slants can be made sufficiently small. Since laser beams produced by separate sources do not interfere with each other, signals on two adjoining slants of a V-shape groove can be reproduced independently using two laser beams. Using two adjoining slants in a pair for recording discrete pieces of information divisionally allows recording and reproduction of high-quality information such as digital video information. In the case of a color television signal using the NTSC system it is digitized into 8-bit data by the composite system at a sampling frequency of 10.74 MHz, the necessary data rate is 86M bits/sec. Excluding the flyback period, adding error correction, and using correlation between adjoining picture elements within a field, the band can be reduced to 40-50% by a predictive encoding method. Accordingly, the NTSC color television signal can be expressed by 35M-43M bits/sec. In the present state of the art, analog signals of about 10 MHz can be recorded on and reproduced from a circular track with a radius of 55 mm from the center of the disk which rotates at 1800 RPM. This means that digital signals of about 20 M bits/sec can be recorded and reproduced using an MFM modulation system. However, this does not suffice to handle digital video signals. On the other hand, if the two slants of each V-shape groove are used as a pair as mentioned previously, digital signals of about 40 M bits/sec can be recorded and reproduced, and thus the digitized NTSC color television signal can be recorded and reproduced in real time. In addition, since the interval of V-shape grooves is set equal to the track pitch of the commercialized video disk, the same playback time length can be ensured for the digital video disk. A disk of 30 cm in diameter can record and reproduce digital video information on both sides for 1 hour in constant angular velocity (CAV) operation or 2 hours in constant linear velocity (CLV) operation. The basic conception of the optical system for realizing the inventive method will now be described with reference to Figs. 3 and 4. Laser emissions made by laser diodes 11 and 12 are condensed by an objective lens 13. The two laser beams enter separately to an object lens 14 substantially in parallel to its optical axis, and are focused on an optical disk 15. Laser beams reflected on the disk are conducted again through the objective lens 14 and then guided apart from the incident path by a half-mirror 16. In the figure, the incident beams are defined by the dashed lines and the reflection beams are defined by the solid lines. The reflection beams are received by two photo-sensors M and N so that signals carried by them are reproduced. A laser beam created by one laser diode is coherent and interferes in both the time domain and space domain. Namely it is temporal coherence and spatial coherence. On the other hand, laser beams created by separate laser diodes do not interfere with each other. The laser beam produced by the laser diode 11 is projected to the center of a slant C, while the laser beam produced by the laser diode 12 is projected to the center of a slant D, and these laser spots do not interfere with each other. Accordingly, the laser diodes 11 and 12 can record separate signals on the slants C and D concurrently by being activated by respective drive circuits 18 and 19 independently. Reflection laser beams from the disk 15 originating from the laser diodes 11 and 12 do not interfere with each other, and include signals of the slants C and D independently. Fig. 4 shows the arrangement of the photo-sensors M and N, and the outer bound of the reflection beams on their photo-sensing surface. As disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open specification No. 57-105828, the photo-sensors M and N can independently reproduce signals on the slants C and D, respectively. Namely, by use of the two laser diodes 11 and 12, separate signals can be recorded on the slants C and D concurrently, and these signals can separately be reproduced concurrently. Tracking method V-shape grooves are formed such that the depth of the grooves is made to change with a very small cyclic variation (e.g., 0.02 µm) by changing their peaks alternately at two frequencies for every two adjoining grooves. As shown in Fig. 5, alternate peak portions are provided at frequencies of f₁ and f₂ to define varying depths of the grooves. Laser spots 1 and 2 with a center distance of P are placed on the slants C and D, respectively. The intensities of laser beams reflected on the disk are modulated by two frequencies f₁ and f₂ which are far lower than frequencies of signals recorded on the slants. If a laser spot deviates rightward (toward slant E in Fig. 5), the reflection beam includes an increasing component modulated by the frequency f₂ and decreasing component modulated by the frequency f₁. Conversely, if a laser spot deviates leftward (toward slant B in Fig. 5), the component of f₁ increases and the component of f₂ decreases. Accordingly, by controlling the optical system so that the reflection beams include equal amounts of components varying at two frequencies f₁ and f₂, the two laser spots can be kept on the tracks on the slants C and D. In tracking the laser spots on slants A and B, a deviation of the spots to the right in Fig. 5 results in an increase of the f₁ component as opposed to the tracking on the slants C and D. Namely, tracking on the slants A and B and tracking on the slants C and D have the opposite polarity relationship of control. Fig. 6 shows a V-shape groove formed in a spiral, and the groove has a depth varying at frequencies of f₁ and f₂ alternately in every revolution. The solid line indicates the bottom of the groove which is traced by the middle point of two laser spots. It will be seen from the above description that the spiral groove can be traced continuously by switching the polarity of tracking control at every revolution of the optical disk. The switching of polarity takes place when the variation of depth of the groove cahnges from frequency f₁ to f₂ and from f₂ to f₁. To find the point of change of the frequency, the groove has its depth varying at the third frequency f₃ for a short interval between the two frequencies, i.e., section W in Fig. 6. Consequently, when the laser spot illuminates the section W on the turning disk and detects the frequency f₃, the polarity of tracking control is switched. The basic optical system for realizing the present invention has been described in connection with Fig. 3. An embodiment including the method of controlling the optical system will be described in the following. The embodiment of the invention is shown in Figs. 7, 8a and 8b. The system uses two laser diodes 11 and 12 providing beams of wavelength λ₁ integrated in one chip, and a laser diode 10 providing a beam of wavelength λ₂. The wavelengths are equal to those in the first embodiment: λ₁ = 780 nm and λ₂ = 840 nm. The laser diodes 11 and 12 produce circular spots 1 and 2 on two adjoining slants of a V-shape groove as shown in Figs. 9a and 9b. The laser diode 10 has an elliptical emission section or a number of aligning emission sections so as to produce a spot 3 (as shown in Fig. 9a) or spots 3 (as shown in Fig. 9b) along the bottom of the groove. The spot 3 has a larger dimension in the longitudinal direction of the groove and has a lateral dimension larger than that of the spots 1 and 2 so that it can erase signals on two adjoining slants concurrently. Fig. 10 shows the intensity distribution of each laser spot on the disk. These spots are focused on the disk in the same way as of the first embodiment. An optical filter 34 transmits the beams of wavelength λ₁ and reflects the beam of wavelength λ₂. The laser beams reflected on the optical disk are transmitted through a polarization beam splitter 24, but the wavelength λ2 of the erasing laser beam is reflected by the optical filter 34, and only laser beams with the wavelength λ₁ transmitted through the optical filter 34 are used for tracking control and signal reproduction. Figs. 8a and 8b are views of the optical system seen in the directions of X and Y in Fig. 8a, respectively. The laser beams transmitted by the filter 34 are reflected by a prism 35 at its critical angle, condensed by a convex lens 36, and then divided by a half-mirror 37. The laser beams transmitted by the half-mirror 37 are received by photo-sensors M and N so that signals are reproduced. In the embodiment, the photo-sensors are placed at positions where the beams from the laser diodes 11 and 12 are not focused and are of yet far-field, but are separated from each other. For example, with the laser spots 1 and 2 being spaced apart with a distance of 30 µm in the groove longitudinal direction, with the objective lens 14 having a focal length of 3.6 mm and an aperture of 4.3 mm, and with the convex lens 36 having a focal length of 40 mm, the photo-sensors may be placed approximately 38 mm apart from the convex lens 36. Fig. 11 shows the arrangement of the photo-sensors. Laser beams 101 and 102 produced by the laser diodes 11 and 12 have a diameter of 250 µm with a center distance of about 300 µm in this embodiment. The sensor M1 senses signals on slant C, while the sensor N2 senses signals on slant D. The laser beams originating from the laser diodes 11 and 12 and reflected by the half-mirror 37 are of sufficiently far-field, and enter the photo-sensors G and H without separating from each other. By comparing the amount of incident beams to the sensors G and H, focusing control can be performed (refer to Japanese Patent Laid-open specification No. 56-7246). Components of frequencies f₁ and f₂ are extracted from signals provided by the photo-sensors G and H, and tracking control is performed as shown in Fig. 5. The embodiment allows recording of high quality information such as digital video signals on a real-time basis and also allows erasure of recorded signals. Since the laser spot 3 for the erasing operation has larger sizes in both the groove longitudinal and lateral directions than those of the spots 1 and 2, aberration of the objective lens 14 is not so serious, allowing the laser beam to have an angle of 3-5 degrees with respect to the optical axis of the object lens 14. The following describes the adjustment for the spatial relationship of the laser spots 1, 2 and 3 on the optical disk surface. In order for the laser spots 1 and 2 to trace the central portions of two adjoining slants, the laser source chip including the laser diodes 11 and 12 is adjustably turned finely around the optical axis of the objective lens 13-1. Furthermore, in order for the laser spot 3 to trace the bottom of the groove midway between the spots 1 and 2, the mirror 41 may be made adjustable to turn around its center 40 such that the laser beam of wavelength λ₂ reflected by the half-mirror 34 in Fig. 7 is equally received in quantity by the split photo-sensors J₁ and J₂ in the controlled condition that the middle of the spots 1 and 2 tracks on the bottom of the V-shape groove.

Claims: A method of recording and reproducing by laser beams on an optical disc, which method employs an optical disc having V-shaped grooves formed by respective slant faces, which method includes the steps of focusing, by means of an objective lens (14), first and second laser beams into respective spots (1,2) on respective adjoining first and second slant faces (1,1) of a groove on said disc and using said first and second laser beams for recording and reproducing information signals concurrently and independently, the method being characterised by: (a) using a disc comprising a recording material which enables recording by heating and fast cooling and which enables erasing by heating and slow cooling, and (b) focusing, by means of the same objective lens a third laser beam into at least one spot (3) on the bottom of the V-shaped groove, the latter spot having a lateral extent sufficient for concurrently erasing information signals recorded on said adjoining slant faces by the first and second laser beams. A method according to claim 1, wherein said third laser beam is projected to form either an elliptical spot or a plurality of spots aligned with the bottom of said V-shaped groove, so that their major extent is in groove direction.

Inventors: NAGASHIMA, MICHIYOSHI, SATOH, ISAO
Applicants: MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC INDUSTRIAL CO., LTD.
Application year: 1983
Main classification: G11B7
IPC codes: G11B7