Magneto-optical recording medium and a reproducing method using such a medium

摘要

A super-resolution magneto-optical recording medium has a reproducing layer, an in-plane magnetization layer and a recording layer. The reproducing layer and the recording layer are magnetostatically coupled, and each of the layers is made of a rare-earth transition-metal alloy which has a greater transition-metal sublattice moment than the compensation composition, and exhibits perpendicular magnetization, if it exists alone. At a temperature not more than the Curie temperature, the in-plane magnetization layer is exchange-coupled with the reproducing layer so as to allow the reproducing layer to exhibit in-plane magnetization. Since the reproducing layer is allowed to exhibit in-plane magnetization by the in-plane magnetization layer, it is not necessary to use a material containing a greater rare-earth metal sublattice moment as the reproducing layer. Therefore, at portions in the in-plane magnetization layer having temperatures higher than the Curie temperature, the directions of the transition-metal sublattice moments of the reproducing layer and the recording layer are aligned in parallel with each other. Thus, the reproducing polarity of this medium becomes the same as the polarity of a magneto-optical recording medium without a reproducing layer, thereby allowing compatibility with each other.