Semiconductor-doped glass is proposed as a super-resolution layer for futur
e ultra-high-density optical disc systems. It was confirmed that this mater
ial system showed very fast response and large transmittance change by lase
r-beam irradiation when CdSSe-doped glass was used. The rise time of the tr
ansmittance change was less than 10 ns and the transmittance change reached
30%. These optical responses were obtained at a power density of the pumpe
d laser beam of 1 MW/cm(2). This power density corresponds to the readout p
ower in digital versatile disk-read only memory (DVD-ROM) and digital versa
tile disk-random access memory (DVD-RAM) discs. This material system is reg
arded as a potential candidate for a super-resolution readout layer that is
applicable to both ROM and RAM discs.