INFORMATION RECORDING MEDIUM, INFORMATION REPRODUCING DEVICE, AND INFORMATION RECORDING/REPRODUCING DEVICE

摘要

An information recording medium from which recorded information is reproduced by using near-field light and the tracking of which can be controlled by using the same. An information reproducing device and an information recording/reproducing device are also disclosed. An information recording medium (3) has a double-layer structure of a light-transmitting layer (11) and a light-reflecting layer (12). A laser beam (8) is made to pass through a small opening (2) in a plane probe (1) thereby to produce near-field light (5), which interacts with a data mark (4) formed in the light-transmitting layer (11) thereby to produce propagation light (14). The propagation light (14) passes through the light-transmitting layer (11), is reflected from the light-reflecting layer (12), passes again through the light-transmitting layer (11), and emerges from the information recording medium (3). The propagation light (14) is received by photodetectors (6, 7) provided to the plane probe (1) to produce a reproduced signal. The propagation light (14) travels an optical path the distance of which is twice or more the thickness of the light-transmitting layer (11) and has an intensity strong enough when received by the photodetectors. High-density recording by the use of near-field light is achieved by directing the propagation light reflected by the reflecting layer as assisting light to the information recording medium.