New Blu-ray Laser Could Enable 100GB Media

Media giant Sharp announced that they have developed a new Blu-ray laser that can read triple- and even quadruple-layer media, which could me 75GB or 100GB recordable discs.

This light is extremely strong at 500mW and is made possible thanks to an aluminum oxynitride layer that is located between the laser's crystal and the standard dielectric film which is meant to protect the laser. Among the benefits include the ability to read a drive twice as deep as current dual-layer Blu-ray drives as well as writing at 8X speed across all four layers. This could potentially mean 75GB or 100GB recordable discs. However, ther's no word on pricing or maturity of the technology.