The film thickness of optical disk multilayer is difficult to be precisely controlled in the actual coating process. The thickness error becomes a main factor influencing the optical characters of the film system. The thickness error sensitivity factor of dielectric optical multilayer is derived from the optical matrix in this paper. The applications to recordable and phase-change optical disk systems are given. The effect of the thickness error on the reflectivity or reflectivity contrast of the optical disk multilayer is analyzed with a computer numerical calculation. The sensitivities to thickness error for different layers or in different film-thickness ranges are compared and discussed. A sketchy method of defining allowable thickness error is given. These results have guidance significance to the design of film layer and the optimization of coating technology in the optical disk systems.

Date Published: 7 February 2001
PDF: 5 pages
Proc. SPIE 4085, Fifth International Symposium on Optical Storage (ISOS 2000), (7 February 2001); doi: 10.1117/12.416827

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 4085:
Fifth International Symposium on Optical Storage (ISOS 2000)
Fuxi Gan; Lisong Hou, Editor(s)