Feasibility analysis of solid immersion lens-based dual-layer near-field recording optics with a numerical aperture of 1.84

A dual-layer near-field recording (NFR) optical system with a high numerical aperture (NA) of 1.84 was designed by appropriate cover and spacing layer selection, using layers with refractive indices of 2.0. The designed aplanatic imaging optics exhibited additional aberrations in the multi-layered stack, mainly due to the air-gap and spacer layer. Given optics designed only to compensate for aberrations caused by a 2-μm-thick cover-layer, a 3-μm-thick spacer layer induces 96.2 mλ_rms and 6.5 mλ_rms of spherical aberration and defocus, respectively. A complete electric field calculation analysis for the inside of the multi-layer stack verified that diffraction-limited spot quality can be ensured on the recording layer with phase-only correction. As the aberration caused by the multi-layered stack cannot be corrected perfectly, due to the high oscillation of the aberration function along the radial direction in the exit pupil, three different types of liquid crystal (LC) electrodes were considered for practical implementation. Of the three phase-correction methods, the approximate linear phase-correction method was the most tolerant of axis decenter from the optical axis, providing acceptable diffraction-limited correction performance.