Spectral and optical properties of a new subphthalocyanine dye as a potential optical recording material

Phthalocyanines (Pcs) are widely investigated compounds for optical storage applications, especially used as recording media of CD-recordable. As a novel class of Pc-related compounds, Subphthalocyanines (SubPcs) share many of the excellent properties of Pcs such as thermal and chemical stability and at the same time have some specific characteristics due to their smaller number of coordinated ring and near-planar cone-shaped geometry. The spectral and optical properties of a new trinitro-substituted SubPc have been studied. Films were prepared either by vacuum evaporation or spin coating from a solution in poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA). The UV-vis spectra (absorption, reflection, transmission) and optical constants (refractive index, extinction coefficient) of the sublimed film were measured by a spectrophotometer and an ellipsometer respectively. We also measured the static optical recording performance of this film with a thin Al reflective layer on it. These results demonstrated that SubPc has a strong and broad absorption region near 600 nm and it will be a promising candidate for short-wavelength optical recording (such as DVD-R) if the high-quality films can be got.