Evaluation of data stability and analysis of degradation factors of digital versatile disk recordable (DVD+R) for archival application

Optical disks are widely used in libraries and archives as digital data media due to their archival storage stability. Nevertheless, there is relatively less focus on the understanding of physical and chemical degradation mechanism. To observe the degradation mechanism of an optical disk, the accelerated aging test was designed with high temperature and relative humidity of 85 °C and 85% in this study. After 1500 h of aging, digital versatile disk recordable (DVD+R) media resulted in a high value of over 280 in the PI sum 8 value, which means a severe data degradation in the media. From the microstructural observation of recorded marks and the chemical analysis of the reflective layer after this accelerated aging test, gradual physical deformation of recorded mark edges and chemical change of the reflective layer were observed, and they might be related to the severe increase of PI sum 8.