Optical storage

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Optical storage" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Optical storage refers to a class of data storage systems that use light to read or write data to an underlying optical media. Although a number of optical formats have been used over time, the most common examples are optical disks like the compact disc (CD) and DVD. Reading and writing methods have also varied over time, but most modern systems as of 2023^[update] use lasers as the light source and use it both for reading and writing to the discs.^[1] Britannica notes that it "uses low-power laser beams to record and retrieve digital (binary) data."^[2][3]