Sony's Blue-Violet Laser the Future Blu-ray?

JoshuaInNippon writes "Japanese researchers from Sony and Tohoku University announced the development of a 'blue-violet ultrafast pulsed semiconductor laser,' which Sony is aiming to use for optical disks. The new technology, with 'a laser wavelength of 405 nanometers in the blue-violet region' and a power out put 'more than a hundred times the world's highest output value for conventional blue-violet pulse semiconductor lasers,' is believed to be capable of holding more than 20 times the information of current Blu-ray technology, while retaining a practical size. Japanese news reports have speculated that one blue-violet disk could be capable of holding more than 50 high-quality movie titles, easily fitting entire seasons of popular TV shows like 24. When the technology may hit markets was not indicated."

Comments

405 nm

[Anonymous Coward]

According to wikipedia, the light used in a bluray laser is also 405 nm, so that isn't the new part, in case that was confusing for anyone else.

Re:405 nm

[Nicko011]

HDDVD also uses 405nm lasers. Blu-ray burners already hit 500mW, so I really don't think they need to be more powerful... Note that 500mW is already 100 times what those cheap red and green lasers put out, and instantly heats up your skin. Anyway, my point is that this article needs a new title - Blue-violet lasers are nothing new. 100W though? That's insane and will quickly burn a hole through your blu-ray player if it's turned on for more than a several milliseconds. For reference, an unfocused, collimated 1W beam (a couple mm in diameter) will instantly make wood smoke and turn black, burn your skin, blind you, melt thick plastic... I can't imagine a 100W laser in any consumer electronics... pulsed or not. It won't be long until hobbyists stick a nice heatsink on the thing and buy the new devices just for those extremely powerful lasers, just like they're doing for the 445nm 1W lasers that they put in those laser/led projectors. In short, this will be interesting.

Re:Another new format?

[Dogtanian]

History is easy to forget. DVD was around on the shelves for almost a decade before it hit mass consumption levels.

No, it wasn't.

DVD came out between late 1996 (Japan) and early 1999, depending on where you lived. Here in the UK it apparently came out in late 1998 (*), and in 3-4 years sharply falling prices were already seriously eroding the VHS market. I got a DVD-ROM drive for UK £40-45 circa 2002, and that wasn't especially cutting edge (nor expensive!) by that time.

(*) Or so Wikipedia claims. However, I remember DVD-ROM drives and decoder cards being offered- albeit it at a notable premium- as a mainstream option when I was choosing a PC in Spring '98.