A magneto-optical recording medium and a method of recording and/or reproducing using the same

摘要

A magneto-optical recording medium including a base; a readout layer formed on the base; a recording layer formed on the readout layer; and an auxiliary recording layer formed on the recording layer, each of the readout layer, recording layer and auxiliary recording layer being made of an alloy of rare-earth metal and transition metal showing ferrimagnetism. The alloy composition of each layer is determined so that the recording layer has a Curie temperature lower than Curie temperatures of the readout layer and the auxiliary recording layer and has a coercive force higher than coercive forces of the readout layer and the auxiliary recording layer at room temperature and that, when the temperature of the recording layer is raised to near its Curie temperature while perpendicularly applying a uniform recording magnetic field to each layer, a sublattice magnetic moment of the rare-earth metal of the readout layer and a sublattice magnetic moment of the rare-earth metal of the auxiliary recording layer are antiparallel to each other. And, a method of recording information on the magneto-optical recording medium. This structure enables overwriting by light-intensity modulation without using an initializing magnetic field.