WO1999013467A1

WO1999013467A1 - Method and system for direct writing and/or editing of information carrier masters

Info

Publication number: WO1999013467A1
Application number: PCT/CA1998/000844
Authority: WO
Inventors: Timothy M. Richardson
Original assignee: NORTHERN EDGE ASSOCIATES Inc
Current assignee: NORTHERN EDGE ASSOCIATES Inc
Priority date: 1997-09-09
Filing date: 1998-09-09
Publication date: 1999-03-18
Anticipated expiration: 2000-03-09
Also published as: AU9057198A

Abstract

A method and system for manufacturing and editing masters for information carriers such as compact discs (CD) and digital versatile discs (DVD) comprises the use of a focused energy beam to add or remove material from the surface of a substrate to create or remove information structures. In one embodiment, material to be deposited is carried by the focused energy beam and in another, material to be deposited is obtained from a precursor gas which is energized by the focused energy beam to deposit the material.

Description

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DIRECT WRITING AND/OR EDITING OF INFORMATION CARRIER MASTERS

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method and system of manufacturing, a _ __ . master for producing information carriers such as compact discs (CD), digital versatile discs (DVD's), etc. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and system of writing and/or editing such masters by the direct deposition or removal of materials onto or from a suitable substrate by ion beam, electron beam, molecular beam or laser beam by induced deposition or ablation/micromachining methods in order to create or remove information structures representing the information carried on the substrate. The method can employ precursor gases which can be organo- metallic gases, inorganic gases or organic gases; or can employ beams which contains the atomic or molecular species that will form or remove the information structure.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Conventionally, information carrier masters for CD's and the like (referred to herein as "stampers") have been produced using a multiple step photolithography process. These stampers consist of a thin disc of electroformed nickel, which is created by electroforming a layer of nickel over a photolithographed substrate, typically a glass surface, to which a photoresist had been applied. In the photolithographic process, negative "pit" structures are formed in the photoresist by a laser exposure process, after which the nickel layer is applied. The nickel layer is removed from the substrate and includes upraised (or positive) "pit" structures which are complementary to those formed in the photolithographic process. The nickel layer then acts as a "stamper" in an injection molding process wherein the information carrier is molded in contact with the stamper to form negative pits in the information carrier, representing the information carried thereon.

While this conventional process is widely used, it suffers from several disadvantages. Specifically, it involves the use of several chemical and electrochemical wet process steps which increase costs and which generally have negative environmental effects. Depending upon the actual process, significant expenses can be incurred, skilled labour is required and the process can be time consuming. Further, these conventional processes only permit the formation of information structures on the stamper and do not permit the subsequent editing of that information by adding or removing information _. structures.

It is desired to have a method and system of creating masters for the manufacture of information carriers which is generally less expensive and/or which is relatively environmentally friendly and/or which permits subsequent editing of information carried on the master.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel method and system for producing masters for information carriers which obviates or mitigates at least one of the disadvantages of the prior art.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of producing and/or editing a master for an information carrier by employing a focused energy beam to form information structures on a substrate by the direct deposition of material onto said substrate. Preferably, the material to be deposited can be carried by said focused energy beam to the desired site for its deposition. Also preferably, the material to be deposited can be decomposed from a precursor gas at the desired site for deposition by said focused energy beam.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a system for direct writing and/or editing of information carriers, comprising: a focused energy beam transporting material to be deposited onto a substrate; a control means to activate and deactivate said focused energy beam; a movable stage to receive a substrate such that said focused energy beam impinges on said substrate and deposits said material to be transported onto a desired site on said substrate when said focused energy beam is activated; and stage control means to position said substrate relative to said focused energy beam such that said focused energy beam impinges at a desired site to form an information structure thereat. _ - __

According to yet another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a system for direct writing and/or editing of information carriers, comprising: a focused energy beam; means to supply a precursor gas to an area adjacent an information carrier substrate; a movable stage to receive said substrate such that said focused energy beam impinges on said precursor gas adjacent said substrate and decomposes said precursor gas to deposit material therefrom onto said substrate; and stage control means to position said substrate relative to said focused energy beam such that said focused energy beam impinges at said desired site to form an information structure thereat.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of producing and/or editing a master for an information carrier comprising the steps of:

(I) providing a suitable information carrier substrate on a substrate stage;

(ii) directing a focused energy beam to a selected site on said substrate;

(iii) employing said directed focused energy beam to alter the surface of said substrate at said site; (iv) moving said substrate stage such that said focused energy beam is directed to another selected site on said substrate;

(v) repeating steps (iii) and (iv) to obtain a desired master.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with respect to the attached Figures, wherein: Figure 1 shows an information carrier master manufacturing and/or editing system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; and

Figure 2 shows a second information carrier master manufacturing and/or editing system in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention. _

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is concerned with the production of masters for information carriers, such as CD's, in a single-step direct write process. The method of the present invention application is similar to methods developed for the repair of semiconductor photolithography masks and for microfabrication, except that the method of the present invention involves the deposition or removal of a metal or ceramic from a metal or ceramic substrate.

Microfabrication and microdeposition processes, used in the semiconductor and mask making industries in the past, have relied on focused ion beams, or focused molecular beams, to either directly deposit their ionic or molecular material on a suitable substrate; or to use focused ion beams or focused electron beams to cause selective localized deposition of the atoms or molecules of a suitable precursor gas. These precursor gases can be an organic gas such as Tetramethoxysilane as described by S. Lipp et al in, "Tetramethoxysilane as a precursor for focussed ion beam and electron beam assisted insulator deposition", J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 4(6), Nov/Dec 1996, page 3920, which discusses the direct deposition of silicon oxide / dioxide, and the contents of this publication are included herein by reference.

The precursor gas can also be an organo-metallic gas such as

Methylcyclopentadienyl trimethyl platinum (MeCp)PtMe₃ as described by Tao, Tao et al in, "Focused ion beam induced deposition of platinum", J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 8(6), Nov/Dec 1990, page 1826, in which platinum structures were directly deposited from the precursor gas, and the contents of this publication are included herein by reference.

Gold has also been deposited from a precursor gas as described by A. Wagner et al in, "X-ray mask repair with focused ion beams", J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 8(6), Nov/Dec 1990, page 1557, and the contents of this publication are included herein by reference. Tungsten carbonyl W(CO)₆ has also been extensively used as a precursor gas by EICO Engineering of Co., Ltd., of Japan and other manufacturers in the USA. . _ -

Alternatively, the material desired may be directly deposited by using appropriate substrates and ion sources along with post objective lens retarding as described by A.

Keislich in, "Minimum feature sizes and ion beam profile for a focused ion beam system with post-objective lens retarding and acceleration mode", J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B12(6), Nov/Dec 1994, page 3518 and by Junichi Yanagisawa in "Low-energy focused ion beam system and direct deposition of Au and Si", J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 13(6), Nov/Dec 1995, page 2621 in which gallium, gold, or silicon were directly deposited on a substrate, and the contents of these publications are included herein by reference.

The principle differences between the subject matter of the prior art , as evidenced by publications referred to above, and the present invention is that, instead of performing spot repair of a semiconductor or mask, in the present invention a flat metallic or other resilient substrate is employed, and the focused energy beam or the substrate, or both, are scanned, preferably in a polar annular fashion, to create an information carrier master. As used herein, the term information carrier master, and related terms, are intended to comprise a substrate carrying intended information, in indirect forms (such as via binary encoding, etc,) or in direct forms (such as information structures in the form of text or objects which can be viewed by a microscope, etc.). Such masters can be used to create information carriers using suitable, known processes, or can themselves be information carriers.

In the present invention, direct deposition of materials onto a suitable substrate by ion beam, electron beam, molecular beam or laser beam induced deposition methods is employed to alter the surface of the substrate to create the required information structures as raised or sunken "pits" on the substrate. The deposition methods can also alter the surface of the substrate, in the case of "negative" information structures, to "erase" information structures. Also, the present invention can be employed to alter the surface of the substrate to remove material therefrom, to erase "positive" information structures and to add "negative information structures, as described in more detail below.

The resulting master or stamper can then be employed in a conventional injection_^ . molding system to produce conventional injection molded CD's or other information carriers by standard production equipment. As used herein, the term "pit" and/or "information structure" is intended to comprise any structure which can be formed on a suitable substrate to represent information in any manner on the information carrier. Such pits or information structures can be positive, meaning the information is represented by the presence or absence of raised structures on the substrate, or negative, meaning the information is represented by the sunken structures in the substrate.

The present invention can employ methods using precursor gases which can be organo-metallic gases, inorganic gases or organic gases and wherein the gas is caused to deposit material on a substrate, to form the desired final pit structure, by the action of a focused energy beam. As used herein, the term focused energy beam is intended to comprise electron beams, ion beams, molecular beams, laser beams and/or any other energy beam which can be focused and employed to cause deposition of material from a precursor gas onto a substrate and any focused energy beam, as defined above, which contains the atomic or molecular species that is desired to be deposited to form an information structure or to remove an information structure. In the latter case, such a focused energy beam can employ a retarding or decelerating system to slow the species ions so that they are directly deposited on the substrate.

A first embodiment of the present invention employs a focused energy beam system, in this example a focused ion beam or "FIB", as shown in Figure 1. In the Figure, a source of ions 10, typically a liquid metal source such as a gallium source, supplies a beam of ions 14. Source 10 is held at a relatively high voltage in order to accelerate the ions towards a target substrate 19 which is typically maintained at ground potential. An ion generating chamber 11 is exhausted through a port 12 to an external pump system. Ion beam 14 is focused by an objective lens 13 to a beam of small diameter.

Typically, the diameter of beam 14 is selected to optimize the deposition rate and the required final pit geometry. The selection of such a diameter will depend upon the actual focused energy beam system selected, the precursor gas (if any) employed and _ other factors and is within the normal skill of one of skill in the art.

Beam 14 passes from ion generating chamber 11 into a sealed evacuated substrate fabrication chamber 15. A beam deflector 16 can be employed to scan beam 14 about substrate 19, for the purposes of imaging substrate 19, by employing a detector and computer imaging system (not shown) which can be helpful in verifying the pit data and correcting or editing the pits, if required. If the system is only to be used for direct writing of masters such as CD stampers, and no imaging is required, then beam deflector 16 can be omitted from the system.

A modulation or shutter system 17 can be used to modulate beam 14 if required, although it is contemplated that this would normally be accomplished by controlling the parameters of beam 14 at source 10. Appropriate modulation or shutter systems will be apparent to those of skill in the art. Beam 14 can be retarded or de-accelerated by a retarding system 18 which applies a retarding voltage to beam 14 in order to reduce the ion energy just prior to impact at substrate 19.

If retarding system 18 is employed, then beam 14 can directly deposit the pits onto substrate 19 and no precursor gas is required. In this case, source 10 can be any suitable metal, alloy or material such as silicon, gold or suitable alloys.

In either case, beam 14 is focussed on substrate 19, which is mounted on a system stage 20, whose movement is controlled by a dual axis drive 21 which is external to sealed fabrication chamber 15. Preferably, if the information pits to be formed on the substrate are to be arranged in a continuous spiral for CD's and the like, stage 20 is moved in a polar coordinate system, meaning that stage 20 can both rotate and move its center from the center of rotation in one horizontal axis. If other arrangements of the information pits are desired, stages 20 which are movable in other coordinate systems, such as X-Y or raster scanned, can be employed.

If retarding system 18 is not employed, a suitable precursor gas is delivered - locally to the point of impact of ion beam 14 on substrate 19 by a nozzle 22. The ions in beam 14 cause the precursor gas to decompose resulting in the deposition of material onto substrate 19 at the point of impact of beam 14. Nozzle 22 must be environmentally controlled by an environmental control tube 23 to ensure that nozzle 22 delivers the precursor gas in the appropriate condition to give the best deposition yield, as is understood by those of skill in the art. Environmental control tube 23 permits the control of appropriate process parameters such as temperature, velocity, pressure and charge of the gas. Typically, nozzle 22 must also be heated to a point approaching, but not equaling, the decomposition temperature of the precursor gas so that a minimum of external energy is required to cause decomposition at the interface between the gas and substrate 19. The precursor gas can be generated in a gas generator 24 which, for example in the case of nickel carbonyl, consists of finely divided nickel powder heated to a suitable temperature and over which is passed a stream of carbon monoxide.

The gas required for the precursor gas generation, or the precursor gas itself in cases where the precursor gas can be obtained in a prepackaged form, is supplied from gas storage cylinder 26 via control valve 25. Fabrication chamber 15 is held in a high vacuum by a vacuum pump 28 which can be isolated from the fabrication chamber via a main vacuum valve 27. A load lock (not shown) can be used to transfer substrate 19 in to and out of fabrication chamber 15 without loss of high vacuum. As will be apparent to those of skill in the art, the load lock should be protected with suitable exhaust so that toxic gases such as nickel carbonyl are not allowed to leave the fabrication chamber 15 via the load lock.

The gases leaving main vacuum pump 28 must be scrubbed or otherwise treated to remove the gas components from the precursor gas. In the case of nickel carbonyl, a suitably heated tube can be used to deposit the metallic nickel onto the tube walls leaving the carbon dioxide. Further information on the nickel carbonyl process will be apparent to those of skill in the art and can be found by consulting the MOND nickel process in appropriate metallurgical handbooks, such as "The Winning of Nickel", Joseph R. Boldt, Jr. et al., 1967 Longmans Canada Ltd, page 374, the contents of which are incorporated _ herein by reference. Clean gas is then passed to an exhaust pump 30 and an external exhaust line 31.

In this embodiment, the focused ion beam delivers a high current beam of ions of a suitable material, such as gallium, to a suitable substrate, such as nickel, through a focusing system and in the presence of a suitable precursor gas, such as nickel carbonyl Ni(CO)₄or tungsten carbonyl, which are delivered locally to the surface of the substrate at the point of ion beam impact. As is apparent to those of skill in the art, nickel carbonyl is an extremely toxic gas and must be handled with extreme care.

In a typical application, initially a substrate such as a nickel blank is prepared by electroforming nickel onto a blank glass substrate, the resulting nickel blank, which is typically 280 to 300 microns thick, is stripped from the glass substrate and trimmed at the outer edge to obtain a desired outer diameter, for CD's typically 138mm, and is punched to obtain an inner hole, for CD's typically 25mm in diameter.

The ion current of the FIB system is set to give the required pit diameter and the FIB "on" pulse time is set to produce the desired pit thickness. The precursor gas supply rate is set to give the required supply of atoms per unit time in the deposition area. For CD masters and the like, the substrate is then stepped in the rotary direction and in the annular direction under the stationary focused ion beam which is modulated to produce the pits in the desired geometric arrangement to provide the coded data for the CD master stamper.

When it is desired to edit an existing master to add or remove information structures, the focused energy beam can be used to identify existing information structures on the substrate to locate sites to be edited, either by using systems such as those employed with focused ion beam photolithography systems or, in the case of a laser focused energy beam, such as those employed with confocal microscopy. These sites then can either have information structures removed or added to obtain the desired edited information. If the^" existing information structures are negative (i.e. - are represented by _ removed material), then material can be deposited as described above to "erase" the information structure. If the existing information structure is positive (i.e. - represented by material added to the substrate surface), the existing information structures can be erased by employing the focused energy beam to ablate or to micromachine the added material. New information structures can also be added to the information carrier, after the appropriate sites have been identified, by depositing or ablating/micromachining material, depending upon whether the information structures are positive or negative.

A second embodiment of the present invention, shown in Figure 2, employs a high powered laser, or other light source, as a focused energy beam. In this case, the laser or other light source (hereinafter referred to collectively as the "light source") delivers the required energy to the substrate to cause the decomposition of a suitable precursor gas, such as nickel carbonyl or tungsten carbonyl gas.

Figure 2 shows a source of photons, shown as light source 100, which can be a laser, a xenon continuous lamp, a xenon flash lamp or an arc which provides high intensity light of the required wavelength, which may be light in the infra-red, visible or ultraviolet wavelengths. The light is further filtered, if required, by a filter 102 to remove any unwanted wavelengths. Light source 100, and all the related optical components, can be contained in a housing 101 which allows the introduction of purging gas, such as dry nitrogen, via a purging port 103. As will be apparent to those of skill in the art, purging of the optical components is desired in a variety of circumstances, and in particular to allow the use of deep ultraviolet wavelengths which are in the region which is attenuated by atmospheric air. Housing 101 also serves to prevent dust or stray light from entering the optics and protects personnel from exposure to harmful intensities and/or wavelengths of light. The beam of light produced can be scanned onto substrate 19 in an X-Y fashion by a scanning mechanism 104, which can be a mirror-based or prismatic scanner, or any other suitable light or optical scanning system as will occur to those of skill in the art. It is contemplated that such an X-Y scanning mechanism will allow the use of the _ focused energy beam in a manner similar to a confocal microscope to permit identification and location of information structures on a substrate for editing purposes, as described above, and for verification purposes. Further, this scanning mechanism can be employed to permit ablation or deposition of material over very localized regions so as to permit enhancement and/or touch up of information structures.

The beam of light is modulated by a modulator 105, if required, which can be any of the standard types of optical modulators. If a flash lamp is employed as light source 100, then modulator 105 is not required as the modulation is provided by a flash controller.

The beam of light is focussed by an objective lens 106 which can be a reflective or refractive optic. Lens 106 can be fabricated from glass, crystal, plastic, mirror surfaces or any combination thereof and can be a simple lens or a compound system of lenses as will be apparent to those skilled in the art. The optical system within housing 101 is sealed from the fabrication chamber 108 by an optical component 107, which can be a precision window or can form part of lens 106. In general, it is preferred to make optical component 107 a replaceable window as it may be damaged by metal deposition over time and need to be replaced. In this case, a thin fused silica window, such as a fused silica microscope cover glass, can be the desired choice for isolating the optical system from fabrication chamber 108.

The energy conveyed by the beam of light impinging on the substrate 19 causes the precursor gas supplied through nozzle 22 to decompose, resulting in deposition of the desired material on substrate 19 to form pits which either represent positive information structures or which erase negative information structures. Stage 20 and drive 21 can be substantially the same as in the previous embodiment, as can the gas delivery and generation system, 22 through 26.

A main valve 117 seals fabrication chamber 108 from the gas removal and scrubbing system. A gas scrubber 118 removes the toxic or harmful components of the . gases leaving fabrication chamber 108 and an exhaust pump 119 pumps the exhaust gases to an external port 120. A load lock, as in the above-described previous embodiment, may be used to introduce substrate 19 into fabrication chamber 108.

Typically, the laser employs a wavelength at which the precursor gas, such as nickel carbonyl, is substantially transparent and the substrate such as the nickel blank is substantially absorbing and which has a suitably short wavelength to deliver the required deposition resolution. The advantages of this system are that the substrate can be held at atmospheric pressure or slightly reduced pressure and that the system can quickly deposit the required thickness of pit.

Preferably, the spot size of a laser beam is selected to deliver a beam diameter equal to a size required to give the desired pit structure with a single controlled pulse of the light source. The substrate, which is typically a blank nickel substrate, as above, is stepped in the rotary direction and in the annular direction under the stationary focused laser beam. The laser "on" time is modulated to give the required pit structures corresponding to the data desired to be stored on the master.

Typical examples of combinations of compositions of substrates and pit materials that can be produced using these methods follows. Silicon dioxide or monoxide pits can be created on a fused silica or sapphire substrate. Nickel, gold, platinum or tungsten pits can be created on a nickel or other metallic substrate. Metallic or ceramic pits can be created on a glass or ceramic substrate. Other combinations will be obvious to those skilled in the art.

In another embodiment of the present invention, the deposition methods can be employed to introduce coloured pigments in the form of ionic or material colorants directly into the deposited information structures. In this way a color picture or other information structure can be created by directly depositing ions of suitable materials such as metallic oxides into the desired locations of the master to create the desired coloring. -

In such a case, the ions can be supplied as the main ion beam 14 in a system where there are multiple ion sources (not shown), one for each desired base color. The ion sources are operated in coordination with dual axis drive 21 to ensure that the desired colors are achieved at the correct locations on the master.

Alternatively, the ions can be supplied into the main ion beam 14 and the color ions will be deposited in a physical matrix with the binding and, preferably transparent, main ions to form the final coloring. Alternatively, the color can be introduced as a fine particulate which is in the local atmosphere at the point of deposition and the final color is mechanically trapped during the deposition process.

Using these methods, full color information structures can be created on a master, however the color information will not be reproduced in subsequent molding processes. However, it is contemplated that, where replicas are created by such molding or other processes and the color information is not present in the replicas, the color can be added in a subsequent process to achieve a replica where the color is original but the information structures are replicated.

In another embodiment of the present invention, the deposition process can employ materials with specific electrical, magnetic, structural or acoustic properties which results in another form of information structure being created on the information master. This information can then be read by any suitable electrical, magnetic or acoustic sensing means. Also, where acoustic materials are deposited on the information master, the reading device can be a means of supplying acoustic energy to the information master. When the information master is energized from an external energy source, the information on the master will appear as a vibration pattern, or signature, which can be read acoustically, as the emitted acoustic vibration, or optically, as the standing or mobile wave patterns, dependant on the encoded information. In this way the electrical or magnetic energization of an information master would result in an acoustical or optical image or vice versa.

As will now be apparent to those of skill in the art, the processes described herein . can be employed to create a variety of different types of information masters. For example, as described above, a master for conventional CD mastering processes can be created, for conventional or non-conventional information. In this case, the substrate can be a nickel sheet of suitable surface finish, thickness and flatness and the deposited material can be nickel from a nickel carbonyl precursor gas. This type of master has the advantage of being of the same composition of the currently used nickel electroformed masters but with finer control of pit detail.

In a second example, a multi-metal master can be formed with information structures formed from metals, such a gold, deposited on a chromium or platinum substrate. This would produce a master with a fast deposition rate and a very durable substrate. In a third example, a refractory metal oxide, such as hafnium dioxide, can be employed to form the information structures on a ductile substrate such as nickel or chromium. This would produce a master with very high durability and low susceptibility to injection damage and consequently longer replication life. In a fourth example, a transparent substrate, such as silicon dioxide (fused silica), can be employed with opaque metallic information structures, such as a sandwiched layers of titanium, platinum and chromium, or single chromium layers. This type of information carrier would have the advantage of offering good optical reading characteristics due to the differential transmission characteristics of the substrate and the structure. A fifth example would employ an acoustically homogeneous substrate and the deposited information structures will have acoustic characteristics that are substantially different from the substrate (although the deposited structures could also be formed of the same material as the substrate and the differential could be solely a function of the structural dynamics). This type of information carrier allows the optical image to be rendered visible by the application of external energy, such as acoustic energy. If an information master is created using the processes of this invention to employ a substrate formed of non-magnetic material and the information structures are formed from a deposition material with magnetic properties, such as iron or fenite, and the deposition occurs in an applied ambient magnetic field, then the resulting information structures on the information carrier master will have a field signature which is permanent and which can be read electromagnetically. Depending on the field established during deposition, the resulting information master can contain magnetic alignments on any vector. If the reading system employed to read the information master (or its replicas, as discussed below) can differentiate a large number of magnetic vectors, then this method can be used to encode a very large amount of differential information in the vector position of the magnetic field. The various vectors are written by changing the ambient field conditions between successive deposition events so that many local magnetic vectors can be encoded into a small area.

Additionally, an information carrier master formed in this manner can be used to form replicas by casting a material which has magnetic particles, or which is a magnetic material, in contact with the information earner master described above. When the cast material sets against the information carrier master, it will contain the magnetic mirror image of the original magnetic carrier master in the cast material.

The above-described embodiments of the invention are intended to be examples of the present invention and alterations and modifications may be effected thereto, by those of skill in the art, without departing from the scope of the invention which is defined solely by the claims appended hereto.

Claims

I Claim:

1. A method of producing and/or editing a master for an information carrier by employing a focused energy beam to form information structures carried by a - substrate.

2. The method as in claim 1 where the energy beam is a focused ion beam.

3. The method as in claim 1 where the energy beam is a laser beam.

4. The method as in claim 1 where the energy beam is an electron beam.

5. The method as in claim 1 where the energy beam is a molecular beam.

6. The method as in claim 1 wherein said material is obtained by the decomposition of a precursor gas by said focused energy beam.

7. The method as in claim 6 where the precursor gas is nickel carbonyl.

8. The method as in claim 7 where the nickel carbonyl is obtained and deposited with the MOND process or a variant thereof.

9. The method as claimed in claim 1 where the information structures are formed by the deposition of a first material onto the substrate which is formed of a second material.

10. A system for direct writing and/or editing of a master for information carriers, comprising: a focused energy beam transporting material to be deposited onto a substrate; a control means to activate and deactivate said focused energy beam; a movable stage to receive a substrate such that said focused energy beam impinges on said substrate and deposits said material to be transported onto a desired site on said substrate when said focused energy beam is activated; and stage control means to position said substrate relative to said focused energy beam such that said focused energy beam impinges at a desired site to form an information structure there at.

11. A system for direct writing and/or editing of a master for information carriers, comprising: a focused energy beam; means to supply a precursor gas to an area adjacent an information carrier master substrate; a movable stage to receive said substrate such that said focused energy beam impinges on said precursor gas adjacent said substrate and decomposes said precursor gas to deposit material therefrom onto said substrate; and stage control means to position said substrate relative to said focused energy beam such that said focused energy beam impinges at said desired site to form an information structure thereat.

12. A method of producing and/or editing a master for an information carrier comprising the steps of: (i) providing a suitable information carrier substrate on a substrate stage;

(ii) directing a focused energy beam to a selected site on said substrate;

(iii) employing said directed focused energy beam to alter the surface of said substrate at said site;

(iv) moving said substrate stage such that said focused energy beam is directed to another selected site on said substrate;

(v) repeating steps (iii) and (iv) to obtain a desired master.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein in step (iii) the alteration of said surface comprises the deposition of material onto said surface.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein in step (iii) the alteration of said surface comprises the removal of material from said surface.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein the material to be deposited is supplied via said focused energy beam. ^" - _

16. The method of claim 13 wherein the material to be deposited is supplied via decomposition of a precursor gas supplied to said select site.

17. An information carrier master comprising : a substrate formed of a first material; a plurality of information structures of a second material and formed on said substrate via deposition.