High-Deposition-Rate Dielectric Thin Film for Phase Change Optical Disc

To improve the productivity of high density digital versatile disk-rewritable media (HD DVD-rewritable media), a silicon-nickel oxynitride (SiNiON) film that can be sputtered with a SiNi target in an atmosphere of mixed argon, oxygen, and nitrogen gases has been developed. The SiNiON film had a deposition rate almost the same as that of the ZnS-SiO2 film widely used in phase change recording media, and its refractive index was sufficiently low, that is, 1.54. Its structure was a mixed matrix of Si, Ni, O, and N, rather than a mixture of SiO2 and Si3N4 clusters. HD DVD-rewritable media using the SiNiON film showed almost the same excellent read/write characteristics as those of the media using the SiO2 film.