Magneto-optical recording medium having a reading layer in which transferred recording marks are extended

摘要

A magneto-optical recording medium and a reading method thereof are disclosed, in which the reading output is hardly reduced even in bits written at sufficiently narrower intervals than the optical diffraction limit of light for reading. The magneto-optical recording medium is that in an area the temperature of which has become not lower than a first predetermined temperature by radiation of a reading laser beam, a reading layer becomes a perpendicularly magnetized film, while recording marks in a recording layer are transferred to the reading layer, and these recording marks transferred to the reading layer are extended in the reading layer in an area the temperature of which has reached a second predetermined temperature or more.