ELECTRO-OPTICAL STORAGE SYSTEM WITH FLYING HEAD FOR NEAR-FIELD RECORDING AND READING

摘要

An electro-optical storage system based on air-bearing-suspended optical head in a near-field configuration. The system comprises a read/write head and a head positioning system, an optics module (1702) including beam relay optics and signal detectors (1804), an optical medium (1714) and a corresponding medium driving unit, and an electronic control system. The optical head includes a near-field lens with a high index of refraction and in a near-field regime has a numerical aperture greater than unity when the spacing between an exit facet of the optical head and a recording layer in an optical medium is a fraction of the wavelength.