phase change: A phase change is a change of the state of matter, like water to steam (or ice), or amorphous (non-crystalline) to crystalline, or vice versa.

From http://www.cdrfaq.org/faq02.html:

CD-RW drives use phase-change technology. Instead of creating "bubbles" and deformations in the recording dye layer, the state of material in the recording layer changes from crystalline to amorphous form. The different states have different refractive indicies, and so can be optically distinguished.

Contributors

• RandyKramer - 10 Feb 2002
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