Near-field radiation from a ridge waveguide transducer in the vicinity of a solid immersion lens

A near-field optical system is investigated to improve the transmission efficiency of near-field transducers. A ridge waveguide is placed adjacent to a solid immersion lens (SIL) but separated by a low-index dielectric layer. The incident electric field near the focus of the SIL is determined by the Richards-Wolf vector field equations. The finite element method is used to solve Maxwell's equations. A spot size of 31 nm is obtained. The maximum value of the absorbed optical power density in the recording medium is 7.51 x 10(-4) mW/nm3 for a 100 mW input power.     

近场光存储及其研究进展

本文从近场光学的超分辨原理出发详细介绍和分析了孔径探针型近场光存储技术，SIL透镜近场光存储技术和近场超分辨结构光盘存储技术等的基本原理、研究现状以及它们的优缺点及存在的问题。     

近场光存储及其研究进展

本文从近场光学的超分辨原理出发详细介绍和分析了孔径探针型近场光存储技术、SIL透镜近场光存储技术和近场超分辨结构光盘存储技术等的基本原理、研究现状以及它们的优缺点及存在的问题     

Realization of a subwavelength focused spot without a longitudinal field component in a solid immersion lens-based system

In a solid immersion lens (SIL)-based system, we predict theoretically that, by using the illumination of an azimuthally polarized beam with helical phase (APH), the subwavelength focusing can be simultaneously realized both in SIL and the third medium in spite of the presence of an air gap between the SIL and the third medium, which is not easily achieved in the case of the illumination of linearly, circularly, and radially polarized beams. For the APH illumination, the field in the focal region of the multilayered medium has no longitudinal component, and the on-axis intensity of the focused spot is nonzero. The APH illumination extends the capacity of SIL in realizing a supersmall focused spot, which is useful in microscopy, near-field optics, recording optics, and lithographic optics.     

Head–disk interface problems in first-surface near-field optical recording with flying optical head

Near-field recording (NFR) technology using a flying optical head is applied for high density optical data storage. Diamond-like carbon (DLC) film and PFPE lubricant film are coated on utmost NFR disk to reduce the tribological problems. A contamination at the head–disk interface (HDI), especially on a solid immersion lens (SIL) is observed. The contaminants are composed of dust materials from the surroundings and lubricant materials from a disk surface. The contaminants are supposed to be condensed by heat from a writing laser beam at the HDI. To avoid the contamination problem, a cover-layer is coated and a focal plane moved under the cover-layer from the HDI. First-surface near-field recording configuration can be modified by laminating a cover-layer, which enhances the possibility of a practical application with a media removability function.     

Near-field double-spot photolithography with subwavelength spacing

We theoretically report a method of the near-field double-spot subwavelength-photolithography by attaching an optical anisotropic metamaterial (OAM) and polymer composite film to a solid immersion lens (SIL). The OAM made up of metallic nanowires embedded in a dielectric matrix can realize all-angle negative refraction for TM waves in the visible regime. When the SIL near-field photolithography system with a nanoscale OAM-polymer composite film is illuminated by a linearly-polarized beam, the longitudinal component of electric field in the focal region of the objective is largely enhanced by surface plasmons and the transverse component is suppressed. Consequently, a spot in the conventional near-field photolithography system with a bare SIL is split into two spots with subwavelength spacing. If the present focusing system with an OAM-polymer film is used to near-field photolithography, a subwavelength-spacing (wavelength/5) and deep photoetching pattern can be achieved and, compared with the conventional single-spot photolithography, the photoetching speed can be doubled.     

Laser-tweezer-controlled solid immersion microscopy in microfluidic systems

We describe the creation and implementation of a near-field scanning solid immersion microscope that is specifically tailored for use in microfluidic systems. The microscope comprises a newly fabricated Weierstrass solid immersion lens (SIL), which is detached from its substrate and is free floating in the fluid, and a laser optical tweezer, which serves both as a trapping beam for alignment and positioning of the SIL and as a near-field scanning beam that images the sample through the SIL. A discussion of the SIL's fabrication method is presented along with experimental results that demonstrate the effectiveness of our microscope design.     

FDTD方法对固体浸没透镜的光场分析

采用二维时域有限差分(2D-FDTD)方法研究了高斯光束通过固体浸没透镜(SIL)的光场分布特性.模拟结果表明,SIL的折射率越大,底面出射的光斑越小,但随离底面距离的增大光束很快展宽;当只有入射角大于全反射临界角、具有高空间频率的部分高斯光束聚焦到SIL底面金属膜中心的微孔时,针对不同直径的微孔,模拟了出射光场的分布,发现微孔直径在某一特定值时,出射光斑半径在距SIL底面近半个波长范围内无明显改变,该结果为增大SIL和存储介质间距的方案提供了理论依据.     

Dispersion effect in optical microscopy systems with a supersphere solid immersion lens

This paper studies the dispersion effect of the supersphere solid immersion lens (SIL) on a near field optical microscopy system by using the vector diffraction theory. Results show that when a real non-monochromatic beam illuminates a supersphere SIL microscopy, the dispersion effect of the SIL has an important influence on the image quality. As the wavelength bandwidth of the non-monochromatic beam increases, the size of the focused spot increases and its intensity decreases in near-field microscopy systems with a supersphere SIL.     

用于双层存储的SIL近场分析

固体浸没透镜 (SIL)用于光存储光学系统增大了光学头物镜的数值孔径 ,利用近场倏逝波读写 ,减小了光斑的直径 ,提高了存储密度。文中建议 :(1)将半球SIL分割成两部分 ,其中一部分由存储媒质的保护层充当 ,避免直接污染记录层 ;(2 )在半球SIL单层读写的基础上 ,再将第一层记录媒质作为SIL的一部分形成超半球齐明SIL ,以实现双层存储。并对此时的近场进行了解析分折     

Laser micro-machining using near-field optics

Solid immersion lenses (SIL) facilitate high numerical aperture (NA) and consequent sub-wavelength diffraction limited focusing in near-field optics based systems. Such systems are in commercial and research use for various applications including near-field scanning optical microscopy, ultra-high-density magneto-optic data storage and near-field nanolithography. Here, we present a novel manufacturing method using SIL-based near-field optics for laser-induced patterning on silicon wafers. The near-field effect of SILs was investigated by using hemispherical lenses made of three different materials (BK7, Sapphire, LaSFN9) to superfocus an incident Q-switched, 532 nm Nd:YAG laser beam transmitted through a focusing objective. This optical arrangement achieved a laser-processed feature resolution near the diffraction limit in air. Results of experiments that were conducted at various processing conditions to investigate the effects of varying incident laser power (with peak pulse power less than 1 W), pulse width, number of pulses and size of SIL on processed feature size and resolution are presented. Experimental results are compared with numerical simulations using the simplified model.     

Simulation on double-ring-resonator-type device considering gain for heat-assisted magnetic recording

Optical Review - Heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) is a promising technology for improving the recording density of hard disk drives. A near-field transducer (NFT), which forms a small light...     

Simulation on parameter optimization of gold nano-antenna attached to semiconductor ring resonator for heat-assisted magnetic recording device

Heat-assisted magnetic recording is a technology to improve recording density for hard disks. The authors’ group has proposed a device, in which a gold nano-antenna as a near-field transducer is attached to a semiconductor ring resonator as an integrated light source. Localized surface plasmon resonance at the tip of nano-antenna excites near-field light to form small recorded marks to increase recording density. In this study, to improve the device performance, the dependence of spot size and energy density of near-field light on tip curvature, length, and bottom diameter of nano-antenna was investigated through a numerical simulation. Cylinder type and cone type nano-antennas were considered. For both types, as the tip curvature of nano-antenna increased, the spot size decreased and the energy density increased. It was possible to reduce the spot size to 18 × 18 nm². For cylinder type, there was an optimal length of nano-antenna where the energy density became maximum, and the optimal length changed depending on the presence or absence of recording medium. This was because of the difference in plasmon resonance condition. Moreover, for cone type, there was an optimal bottom diameter of nano-antenna where the energy density became maximum, and the optimal bottom diameter changed depending on the length of nano-antenna.

     

Experimental Research on Focusing Property of Radially Polarized Beam Based on Solid Immersion Lens

Realization of a near-field optical virtual probe based on an evanescent Bessel beam is strongly dependent on a radially polarized beam; this makes it essential to study the focusing property of the beam. In this paper, two experimental setups based on a fiber device and a liquid crystal device, respectively, are built to generate a radially polarized beam. This beam and an annular radially polarized beam are focused by means of a high numerical aperture objective and a solid immersion lens (SIL). Near-field distribution of the focus spot, the evanescent Bessel field, is experimentally measured with a scanning near-field optical microscope (SNOM). The full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the central peak of the evanescent Bessel field is about 200 nm in the close vicinity of the bottom surface of SIL. This has potential for use as a near-field optical virtual probe.     

Simulation on near-field light on recording medium generated by semiconductor ring resonator with metal nano-antenna for heat-assisted magnetic recording

Optical Review - Heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) is a promising technology for achieving more than 10 Tbit/inch2 recording density. A near-field transducer (NFT), which forms a small light...     

固体浸没透镜飞行高度的气浮控制

采用固体浸没透镜的光存储方法是提高光存储密度的比较实用的近场光存储方法,而严格控制SIL下底面与光存储介质之间的亚波长级距离是此光存储系统正常工作的前提.本文采用电容法测量SIL的飞行高度,采用弹性悬臂将SIL加载在转盘表面上,转盘以不同速度转动时SIL将悬浮在不同的高度.计算机首先采集到SIL的飞行高度信息,再与设定的飞行高度作比较,根据比较结果调整转盘转速,从而达到调整SIL飞行高度的目的.采用此方法,可以动态地将SIL的下底面控制在距高速转动的转盘表面上150～600 nm范围内的一定高度上.     

Optimizing the optical field distribution of near-field SIL optical storage system using five-zone binary phase filters

Five-zone binary phase filters (FBPFs) are proposed for decreasing the spot size and/or increasing the focal depth of the near-field optical storage system with a hemisphere solid immersion lens (SIL). The design of filters is based on the vector diffraction theory and the MATLAB optimizing toolbox. Three FBPFs with rotationally symmetrical pupil function have been designed, where the one FBPF is for increasing the focal depth as big as possible, the second FBPF is for improving the resolution as high as possible, and the third FBPF integrate the increase of focal depth with the improvement of resolution. Numerical results show that compared with the three-zone amplitude filter, the designed five-zone binary phase-only filters have more prominent performances in improving the focal depth and the resolution of the near-field SIL optical storage system.     

Pupil-plane filtering for improved signal detection in an optical data-storage system incorporating a solid immersion lens

A pupil-plane filtering technique is applied to data-signal detection in an optical data-storage system that uses a solid immersion lens (SIL) and a four-layered phase-change recording medium. We have confirmed by numerical calculations and experiment that the technique improves signal contrast and makes the contrast less sensitive to the gap width between the bottom surface of the SIL and the top surface of the recording medium. Light that is incident upon the objective lens that is used with the SIL is linearly polarized, and the full vectorial feature of the light is considered in the calculations.     

Three-zone phase-only filter increasing the focal depth of optical storage systems with a solid immersion lens

The field distribution of a Weierstrass solid immersion lens (SIL) is presented, which shows that its focal depth is only in nanoscale. A novel filter design based on a three-zone binary phase pupil function is introduced for increasing the focal depth of a near-field Weierstrass SIL system and a procedure for designing a rotationally symmetric binary phase filter is presented. Numerical results show that an appropriate three-zone phase-only filter not only can evidently increase the focal depth of the SIL system, but also can effectively lower the spreading of the spot size with distance and suppress the side-lobe intensity. PACS 42.79.Ci; 42.40.Lx; 42.79.Vb; 42.25.-p     

Recording characteristics of high-density thin optical disk using near-field optical recording

We report on the recording characteristics of a near-field optical recording thin optical disk (NFR-TOD). We proposed a new cooling-less-type write strategy for recording, applied it to the NFR-TOD experimental system, and also applied a partial response maximum likelihood (PRML) signal processing, which was evaluated and optimized the PR coefficient for playback signals of the prototype NFR-TOD. The NFR-TOD has a track pitch of 160 nm and improved recording characteristics. The experimental results of the prototype NFR-TOD and the system indicate sufficiently low bit error rates (bERs) for recorded data at a fourfold higher recording density than the current Blu-ray disk.