High Spatial Resolution and Throughput Potential of an Optical Head with a Triangular Aperture for Near-Field Optical Data Storage

A near-field optical head with a triangular aperture has been precisely analyzed on the basis of a three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain method in order to obtain both higher spatial resolution and signal output performance for a near-field optical data storage system. The numerical analysis revealed that in contrast to a conventional aperture, this triangular-shaped aperture can successfully enhance energy distribution intensity at only the side perpendicular to the incident polarization direction, generating an extremely small optical spot not limited by its entire aperture size. The read-out performance was also simulated for the aperture passing over a space-patterned metal medium, resulting in both superior spatial resolution and signal output.

[1]  M Ohtsu,et al.  High-density speed optical near-field recording reading with a pyramidal silicon probe on a contact slider. , 2000, Optics letters.

[2]  H. Bethe.  Theory of Diffraction by Small Holes , 1944 .

[3]  T. Tamamura,et al.  7.5-MHz data-transfer rate with a planar aperture mounted upon a near-field optical slider. , 2000, Optics letters.

[4]  M. Kryder,et al.  Near‐field magneto‐optics and high density data storage , 1992 .

[5]  Zhonghua Wu,et al.  Generalized perfectly matched layer for the absorption of propagating and evanescent waves in lossless and lossy media , 1996 .

[6]  Motoyasu Terao,et al.  Phase change recording using a scanning near‐field optical microscope , 1996 .

[7]  Manabu Oumi,et al.  Numerical Simulation on Read-Out Characteristics of the Planar Aperture-Mounted Head with a Minute Scatterer , 2001 .

[8]  Sumio Hosaka,et al.  1.5-Mbit/s direct readout of line-and-space patterns using a scanning near-field optical microscopy probe slider with air-bearing control , 2000 .

[9]  Daniel E. Prober,et al.  Optical antenna: Towards a unity efficiency near-field optical probe , 1997 .

[10]  M Ohtsu,et al.  Silicon planar-apertured probe array for high-density near-field optical storage. , 1999, Applied optics.

[11]  Lambertus Hesselink,et al.  Mechanisms for Enhancing Power Throughput from Planar Nano-Apertures for Near-Field Optical Data Storage , 2002 .

[12]  Motoichi Ohtsu,et al.  Metallized pyramidal silicon probe with extremely high throughput and resolution capability for optical near-field technology , 2002 .