Optical disc drive beam on a smaller spot size and to read smaller pits. DVD lens supports a different focus for CD or DVD media with same laser. With the newer Blu-ray disc drives, the laser only has to penetrate 0.1 mm of material. Thus the optical assembly would normally have to have an even greater focus range. In practice, the Blu-ray optical system is separate from the DVD/CD system. During the times of CD writer drives, they are often marked with three different speed ratings. In these cases, the first speed is for write-once (R) operations, the second speed for re-write (RW)
Optical medium Optical medium An optical medium is material through which electromagnetic waves propagate. It is a form of transmission medium. The permittivity and permeability of the medium define how electromagnetic waves propagate in it. The medium has an "intrinsic impedance", given by where formula_2 and formula_3 are the electric field and magnetic field, respectively. In a region with no electrical conductivity, the expression simplifies to: For example, in free space the intrinsic impedance is called the characteristic impedance of vacuum, denoted "Z", and Waves propagate through a medium with velocity formula_6, where formula_7 is the frequency and formula_8 is the wavelength