Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Hiroyuki Iwasa

Michiaki Shinotsuka

Masaru Shinkai

Kazunori Ito

Yuki Nakamura

Atsushi Inoue

Tadashi Hayakawa

Tohru Yashiro

Seiji Terazawa

Hiroshi Deguchi

Makoto Harigaya

Yuki Oshikawa

Tatsuo Mikami

Hajime Yuzurihara

Eiko Hibino

Hiroko Ohkura

Takao Yamada

Kaori Mitsuishi

Hiroko Tashiro

Michitaka Sasaki

Miku Mizutani

Toshio Matsushita

Yasuo Kanbara

Shigeki Okauchi

A powder storage container capable of preventing erroneous opening of a powder loading port. The powder storage container includes a powder storage part configured to store a developer used for image forming, a powder discharge part provided on one end part of the powder storage part to discharge the developer stored in the powder storage part, a gripping part protruding through an end face of the one end part side of the powder storage part, a powder loading port causing an inner space of the powder storage part and an outer portion of the powder storage part to communicate with each other, and a sealing member capable of sealing the powder loading port. The powder loading port is enclosed by the gripping part.

Powder storage container and image forming apparatus in which a gripping part includes a powder loading port and a sealing member

An optical recording medium having first protective layer, recording layer, second protective layer, and reflective layer, wherein the recording layer contains a phase-change material represented by Formula (1&#x2033;1), Formula (1-2), or Formula (1-3); the second protective layer contains one selected from zinc oxides, indium oxides, tin oxides, mixtures thereof, and materials Formula (2), and materials Formula (3). Formula (1&#x2033;1): InSbX1(X1: Ge, Te, Zn, Mn, or mixture thereof, 0.10&#x2266;&#x3b1;1&#x2266;0.25, 0.65&#x2266;&#x3b2;1&#x2266;0.80, and 0.04&#x2266;&#x3b3;1&#x2266;0.15) Formula (1-2): GaSbSnGeX2(X2: Te, Zn, Mn, In, or mixture thereof, 0.04&#x2266;&#x3b1;2&#x2266;0.09, 0.56&#x2266;62&#x2266;0.79, 0.05&#x2266;&#x3b3;2&#x3c;0.30, 0.03&#x2266;&#x3b4;2&#x2266;0.19, and 0&#x2266;&#x2208;2&#x2266;0.09) Formula (1-3): MnSbSnGeX3(X3: Te, In, Zn, Bi, or mixture thereof, 0.04&#x2266;&#x3b1;3&#x2266;0.09, 0.56&#x2266;63&#x2266;0.79, 0.05&#x2266;&#x3b3;3&#x2266;0.29, 0.03&#x2266;&#x3b4;3&#x2266;0.23, and 0&#x2266;&#x2208;3&#x2266;0.09) Formula (2): ZnO&#x2014;Al&#x2014;Y [(100&#x2212;&#x3b1;4&#x2212;64):&#x3b1;4:&#x3b2;4] (Y: Mn, Ge, Ti, or mixture thereof, 0.5&#x2266;&#x3b1;4&#x2266;10.0, and 0&#x2266;B4&#x2266;25.0) Formula (3): ZnO&#x2014;AlO&#x2014;Z [(100&#x2212;&#x3b1;5&#x2212;65):&#x3b1;5:&#x3b2;5] (Z: Mn oxide, Ge oxide, Ti oxide, or mixture thereof, 0.5&#x2266;&#x3b1;5&#x2266;10.0, and 0&#x2266;65&#x2266;30.0).

Optical recording medium

An optical recording medium wherein a laser beam at a wavelength &#x3bb; is irradiated and recording and reproducing of information are performed by optical power modulation of binary or more, and when the refraction index of the first substrate being n, the refraction index of the intermediate layer being n, the groove depth, the groove width and the track pitch of the first information layer being d, wand prespectively and the groove depth, the groove width and the track pitch of the second information layer being d, wand prespectively, the following conditions are satisfied.4&#x3bb;/16&#x2266;7&#x3bb;/16&#x3bb;/16&#x2266;3&#x3bb;/16or 4&#x3bb;/16&#x2266;7&#x3bb;/160.2&#x2266;&#x2266;0.550.2&#x2266;&#x2266;0.55

Optical recording medium, and method and apparatus for optical recording and reproducing thereof

The object of the present invention is to provide an optical recording medium which comprises a substrate, and a first information layer and a second information layer disposed on the substrate, and an intermediate layer disposed between the first information layer and the second information layer, wherein any one of recording and reproducing is performed in the first information layer and the second information layer by irradiating a laser beam from the first information layer side, the second information layer comprises a protective layer, a second dye layer which comprises an organic dye, an oxidized layer, and a reflective layer in this order from the laser beam irradiation side, and the oxidized layer comprises an oxide which is a material constituting the reflective layer.

Optical recording medium, and, method for manufacturing the same, and method and apparatus for optical recording and reproducing thereof

The object of the present invention is to enable the identification of double-layer disc type (recordable double-layer disc, rewritable double-layer disc and ROM-type double-layer disc) to be easily and accurately performed. The method for identifying double-layer disc contains obtaining a reflectance of each light by irradiating light of different wavelengths under focused state to each layer of a double-layer disc loaded in an optical apparatus, and identifying if the double-layer disc is a recordable double-layer disc, a rewritable double-layer disc or a ROM-type double-layer disc corresponding to the combination of reflectance of each obtained light. It is preferable that the wavelength of one light is a wavelength for DVD-based disc and the wavelength of the other light is a wavelength for CD-based disc.

Method for identifying double-layer disc and optical disc apparatus

The object of the present invention is to provide a multilayer phase-change information recording medium comprises a substrate, and N layers of information layer (N represents an integral number of 2 or more), and each of the information layers comprises at least a recording layer in which information is recorded by irradiating laser beam to induce a phase change between crystalline phase and amorphous phase. The present invention is characterized in that when the information layer is disposed so that a first information layer, a second information layer, a third information layer . . . , and N information layer are disposed in this sequence from the laser beam irradiation side, at least one information layer other than the N information layer comprises a lower protective layer, a recording layer, an upper protective layer, a reflective layer, and a thermal diffusion layer disposed in this sequence from the laser beam irradiation side; the thermal diffusion layer comprises at least indium (In) and oxygen (O) and further comprises any one of titanium (Ti) and zirconia (Zr); and the atomic ratio of indium (In) to all the metal elements in the thermal diffusion layer, In/all the metal elements, is 0.75 to 0.9.

Multilayer phase-change information recording medium, and method for recording and reproducing using the same

An optical information recording medium comprising a substrate, recording layer and reflecting layer, characterized in that a layer containing a mixture of carbide and oxide is disposed over a surface of the reflecting layer which faces to the recording layer. The carbide is a carbide of at least one metal selected from Ti, Zr, V, Nb, Ta, Cr, Mo and W, and the oxide is an oxide of at least one metal selected from Ti, Zr, V, Nb, Ta, Cr, Mo and W.

Optical information recording medium

The present invention is to provide a practically usable, recordable or rewritable optical information recording medium having a pair of recording layers and a recording and reproducing apparatus for the medium. The recording medium has a pair of recording layer structures on a substrate so as to sandwich a resin intermediate layer, and a recording beam and a reproducing beam are irradiated to two recording layer structures. The pair of recording layer structures respectively have a different track pitch, and the ratio of difference in the track pitch defined by Expression 1 is +0.03 to +0.15,(T2&#x2212;T1)/T1 &#x2003;&#x2003;Expression 1 Trepresents a track pitch of the recording layer structure disposed on the laser beam irradiation side, and Trepresents a track pitch of the recording layer structure disposed on the inner side.

Optical information recording medium, and recording and reproducing apparatus of the same

A multilayer phase change information recording medium including plural information layers containing at least a first information layer and a last information layer, each of which includes a recording layer in which information is recorded utilizing a phase change between a crystalline phase and an amorphous phase. At least one of the plural information layers other than the last information layer includes a first lower protective layer, a first recording layer located overlying the lower protective layer, a first upper protective layer located overlying the first recording layer, a first reflective layer located overlying the first upper protective layer, and a heat diffusion layer located overlying the first reflective layer and which mainly contains In, Zn and O.

Phase change information recording medium having multiple layers and recording and playback method for the medium

An optical recording medium which comprises a substrate and a recording layer disposed on the substrate, in which the recording layer comprises Ga and Sb, a content of the Sb is 80 atm % to 95 atm % relative to a total content of the Ga and the Sb in the recording layer, and recording and erasing are carried out by a reversible phase change between an amorphous phase and a crystalline phase in the recording layer.

Optical recording medium, process for manufacturing the same, sputtering target for manufacturing the same, and optical recording process using the same

The present invention relates to a phase-change optical information recording medium comprising a recording layer which reversibly phase-changes between the crystalline phase and the amorphous phase by irradiation of a light having a recording wavelength of 390 to 430 nm, and a light transmittance thermally controllable layer showing a light transmittance varying according to temperature, in which the light transmittance increases at a rate of 0.2 to 0.7% /10&#xb0; C.

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Yokohama, Japan

Hiroyuki Iwasa