Reading bits on a CD-ROM without a photodiode

Michael Joseph Wishon (1) , A. Locquet (2) , Guillaume Mourozeau (1) , Daeyoung Choi (1) , Sreejith K.R. (1) , Aakash Sahai (1) , David Citrin (1)

1 Georgia Institute of Technology [Atlanta]
2 Georgia Tech Lorraine [Metz]

The authors demonstrate that the bits of a Compact Disc – Read Only Memory (CD-ROM) can be read without aphotodiode (PD). A commercial CD-ROM drive was used and left unmodified except a beam splitter was removed which wouldroute the light to a PD. This allowed for the reflected light to be incident on the laser within the laser package itself. Bymonitoring fluctuations in the voltage across the laser diode under constant-current injection, it was possible to read andinterpret the bits from a spinning CD-ROM

Keywords: CD-ROMs; optical beam splitters; semiconductor lasers

Domains: Engineering Sciences [physics]; Engineering Sciences [physics]; Optics / Photonic

Michael Joseph Wishon, A. Locquet, Guillaume Mourozeau, Daeyoung Choi, Sreejith K.R., et al.. Reading bits on a CD-ROM without a photodiode. IET Optoelectronics, 2017, 11 (5), pp.213-216. ⟨10.1049/iet-opt.2016.0118⟩. ⟨hal-03014515⟩