We have developed a new themal rewritable marking medium which is formed three component materials, i.e. a color former (leuco dye), a developer (phenol compound), and a reversible matrix (steroid). The medium was colorless in adisordered state and colored in an ordered state. From analysises and simulations, it is thought that the coloring process is related to the glass transition and the molecular diffusion.

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We have been studying laser recording on thermo rewritable marking media. In this recording method, the laser is used as a heat source instead of a thermal printing head. As an image is recorded by an irradiation of focused laser beam out of contact between the heat source and the medium, a high resolution and clear image, and a high durability for repeated use of recording and deleting can be obtained by this laser recording method.
In this paper, we investigated the recording characteristics of this method using various parameters such as thickness of recording layer and base film of light-heat conversion sheet, bias temperature, and laser power. As a result, we have confirmed that the energies required to record are about 2.7 J/cm² for a separation type which the medium is recorded to put the light-heat conversion sheet on top of the medium and about 2.2 J/cm² for a double layered type which the recording medium contains a light-heat conversion layer, and have obtained the image sample having the resolution of 1524 dpi.

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