Near-field transducer efficiency monitoring system

摘要

A system may have a data storage medium that contains at least one data bit that is accessed by a transducing head that has a near-field transducer. A controller can be connected to the transducing head and store a plurality of near-field transducer operating currents in a memory. The controller may identify a change in efficiency of the near-field transducer from the plurality of near-field transducer operating currents.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
connecting a controller to a transducing head having a laser and a near-field transducer; storing a plurality of laser operating currents with the controller; decreasing an initial laser operating current to a first adjusted laser operating current in response to a measured bit error rate being lower than a maximum bit error rate; selecting a second adjusted laser operating current from the plurality of laser operating currents in response to a detected device operating temperature, the second adjusted laser operating current being lower than the first adjusted laser operating current; and accessing a data bit stored on a data storage medium with the second adjusted laser operating current.