Determination of the track width (periodicity) in a written CD

Aim: Determination of the track width (periodicity) in a given CD by a Laser diffraction method
and then determine the amount of data stored on a given CD.

Apparatus Required:

Laser source, written CD-R, Planer screen and Scale.

Theory:

A standard CD is a fairly simple piece of plastic disk having 1.2 mm thick and 120 mm
diameter. It can hold up to 80 minutes of uncompressed audio or 700 MB of data.

As shown in the Fig. 1, a CD have the following components, from the center outward: the
center spindle hole (15 mm), the first-transition area (clamping ring), the clamping area (stacking
ring), the second-transition area (mirror band), the program (data) area, and the rim. The inner
program area occupies a radius from 25 to 58 mm.

Fig. 1: A cross-sectional view of a CD skelton along with different components and their typical
dimensions.

There are different types of CDs are available in the market and CD-ROM (called stamped CD),
CD-R and CD-RW are the most widely used types. Here we try to determine the track width of a
standard CD-R, using laser reflective diffraction method.

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Just like all kinds of CDs, a CD-R disc is a sandwich of a number of layers. The polycarbonate
disc contains a spiral groove (tracks), called the "pregroove" (because it is molded in before data
are written to the disc), to guide the laser beam upon writing and reading information. The
pregroove is molded into the top side of the polycarbonate disc, where the pits and lands would
be molded if data were written; the bottom side, which faces the laser beam in the player or
drive, is flat and smooth. The distance between the spiral tracks, the pitch, is ____ µm. Our
aim is to determine the pitch using light diffraction experiment.
This polycarbonate disc is coated on the pregroove side with a very thin layer of organic dye
(cyanine, azo or phthalocyanine). Then, on top of the dye is coated a thin, reflecting layer of
silver, a silver alloy, or gold. Finally, a protective coating of a photo-polymerizable “lacquer” is
applied on top of the metal reflector and cured with UV-light. Some discs are also topped, on
lacquer layer, with additional layers that improve scratch resistance, increase handling durability
or provide surfaces suitable for labeling by inkjet or thermal transfer printers. A cross-
sectional view of a CD-R is shown in the Fig.2.

Fig.2: A cross-sectional view of a CD-R.

The laser of your CD-R drive heats the dye to a temperature of about 200 oC, irreversibly melting
a pitted pattern into the recording layer. A plastic layer alongside the dye expands into the newly
available space creating a pit pattern similar to that of a conventional CD. Your CD player reads
this highly reflective pattern for playback. Because the plastic layer melts into the dye layer to
set the patter.
Digital data is stored in CD as a series of these "pits". The areas between pits (i.e.,
unmelted area) are known as "lands". Each pit is approximately 100 nm deep by 500 nm wide,
and varies from 0.85 µm to 3.5µm in length. Pits have the same light reflecting surface as the
land, but pits reflect the read-laser's light in a diffuse and interferening way and thus look
relatively dark compaired to the land areas.

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 Fig.3: Data tracts and lands and pits in the written CD.

It is not simply so that a land is a "1" data bit, and a pit is a "0" data bit. A data bit is a "1"
or "0" from the original data, but on a CD there are no data-bits but channel-bits. A channel bit is
the smallest time unit used on a CD (=1/4,321,800 sec). A "1" channel bit = a time with change
from land to pit, or from pit to land, a "0" channel bit = a time when there is no change, as shown
in Fig.4. Channel bit length is computed just by dividing the speed by the bit rate. For example:
1.2 m/sec / 4321800 channel bit/sec = 277.662 nm.

Pit & Land Length varies a little depending on how fast the disk turns while recording. The
scanning velocity during recording shall be between 1.20 m/s and 1.40 m/s with a channel
bit rate of 4321800 channel bit/sec. The velocity variation for a disk when recorded shall be
within 0.01 m/s. In other words, CDs are recorded at a constant velocity within 0.01/1.3 =
0.8% tolerance. Since the channel bit rate is held constant (4321800 channel bit/sec = 75
blocks/sec * 98 frames/block * 588 channel bits/frame.), then the density of the bits must
vary with recording velocity. In other words, those 4321800 channel bits that encode 1
second of audio could be stored in as little as 1.2 linear meters or as much as 1.4 linear
meters.

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Fig.4: Mapping of bits with lands and pits.

The spiral of pits behaves in much the same way as a reflective diffraction grating. That is why
you see beautiful rainbow colors when white light illuminates the CD. When a laser beam is
reflected off the disc, a diffraction pattern is formed. If the angle of incidence is close to the
normal, the condition for constructive interference is identical to that for a transmission
diffraction grating.

In your previous cycle (Modern Physics lab), you may have determined the wavelength (W/L) of
the laser using a grating (ruler). Now you can use the W/L of the laser to to measure the spacing
between tracks on a compact disc (CD)! Thus, you may determine the maximum amount of
information that can be stored on a CD.

The diffraction pattern that you see when you allow the reflected laser light to fall on a white
wall can be used to infer the track width.

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Fig.5: The schematic diagram of the experimental arrangement.

Formula used:

nλ = d sinθ (For reflected diffraction pattern) ……………………………………..(1)

Where,

λ is the wavelength of the laser, θ is the angle of diffraction, n is the order of diffraction and d is
the track width (to be determined). Hence, the track width can be determined by using the
following equation,

d = λ n / Sinθ µm …………………………………(2)

Experimental Procedure:

1. The CD is held normal to the laser beam at a distance ~40cm such that the laser source
lies between the screen and the CD.

2. The laser source is switched on and it is diffracted by the CD by the phenomenon of

4. The distance 2L between the spots on either side of the central spot is measured
corresponding to various orders (1,2,3….n).

5. The experiment is repeated for various values of D, the distance between the screen and
the CD.

Observation Table: Given λ of laser =…………..

n D ( cm) 2L (cm) L (cm) tanθ =L/D θ = tan-1(L/D) Sinθ Mean Track-

Calculations:

d = λ n /Sinθ (µm)

Result & Conclusion:

The track width of the CD is ‘d’ =………………. µm

Applications:

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Precautions:

1. Do not see the laser light directly.

Questions:

1. Given the inter-track spacing that you find, can you estimate the number of tracks on the
CD and the total length of the spiral track?
2. From this total length, and an average bit-length of about 0.6 micron, estimate how many
bits would fit on the CD?
3. Find the number of bytes (8 bits/byte).

Further study:

1. Do the same for DVD

2. Create Transmission Gratings from a CD and try the above experiment to determine the track
width on the written CD.

3. Estimate the data size exist on the CD, by assuming standard value of data channel.

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THE END

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