Cross-substitutional alloys of InSb are attractive for novel write-onc
e read-many optical media such as CD-R because of the low melting poin
t and the phase diagram of the alloys. The low melting point means tha
t laser ablation is possible with low power solid state lasers and the
two phase material in the alloy phase diagram can be converted irreve
rsably into a single phase material. In both cases the reflectivity di
fference between the hole and the land and the two-phase and the singl
e phase material should be sufficient to make digital recording possib
le. This is the first time that these materials have been reported for
write-once optical recording.