Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company

Vivien L Bell

Alan G Hulme-Lowe

Ian J Ferguson

Simone Franco

Andrew C Jackson

Mark J Weatherley

An optical recording element in which information can be recorded and read directly afterwards by means of laser light, the element comprising, as a recording medium, a dye, which is not capable of being isomerized due to light, dissolved or dispersed in a binder, the binder comprising a thermally cured organic material composed of non-metallic elements only, and having a cross-linked three-dimensional network structure. The thermally cured binder provides improved stability to repeated read.

Recording medium for optical data storage

A polymeric tetra-aryl polymethine dye of the general formula ##STR1## in which: A comprises a conjugated chain of carbon atoms having an equal number of double and single bonds,

Polymeric polymethine dyes and optical data storage media containing same

An optical data storage element in which information can be recorded and read directly afterwards by means of laser light comprising, as a recording medium a dye dissolved or dispersed in a binder in which at least 25% by weight of the binder comprises a polymer in which at least 50% of the units have the general formula: ##STR1## in which: R.sup.1 to R.sup.8 are independently selected from hydrogen, an alkyl group of up to 12 carbon atoms, an aromatic group of up to 12 carbon atoms, halogen, ether, carboxylic acid, ketone, nitro, amino and hydroxy groups of any two adjacent groups of R.sup.1 to R.sup.8 may comprise the necessary atoms to complete a carbocyclic or heterocyclic ring, and there are at least 10 units of formula (I) within the polymer chain. The dye-polymer system possesss high sensitivity acceptable CNR and particularly good stability to repeated read.

An optical recording element on which information can be recorded and read directly afterwards by means of laser light in which the element comprises, as a recording medium, an effective amount of one or more dyes of the formula: ##STR1## in which: m+p=2,

Recording element for optical data storage

An optical recording element in which information can be recorded and read directly afterwards by means of laser light, comprises a substrate having on at least one side a recording layer including an effective amount of one or more compounds selected from a certain class of trimethine and longer chain aryl polymethine dyes associated with specific counter-ions.

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London, United Kingdom

Vivien L Bell