Optical recording/reproducing method, recording medium used for optical recording and reproduction, and optical recording/reproducing apparatus

摘要

High density data storage device has a support substrate and one or more different types of phosphors contained at each of plural regularly arranged microscopic regions of the support substrate. Each of the different types of phosphors has a fluorescence characteristic that may be faded by incident light having a different predetermined wavelength. The use of near-field light facilitates a reduction in size of the space required for each data bit. By providing a plurality of different types of phosphors at each of the microscopic regions, the amount of information storable at each bit space is rendered multi-valued to enable higher density recording.