High-Density Near-Field Optical Disc Recording

We developed a high-density near-field optical recording disc system using a solid immersion lens. The near-field optical pick-up consists of a solid immersion lens with a numerical aperture of 1.84. The laser wavelength for recording is 405 nm. In order to realize the near-field optical recording disc, we used a phase-change recording media and a molded polycarbonate substrate. A clear eye pattern of 112 GB capacity with 160 nm track pitch and 50 nm bit length was observed. The equivalent areal density is 80.6 Gbit/in2. The bottom bit error rate of 3 tracks-write was 4.5×10-5. The readout power margin and the recording power margin were ±30.4% and ±11.2%, respectively.