METHOD OF RECORDING INFORMATION ,AND ITS MEDIUM

摘要

PURPOSE: To record information at a high space resolution and a high writing speed by making a chip of a scanning tunneling microscope pass through a surface of an information medium and making laser light radiation focus thereon. CONSTITUTION: An information medium has an information layer in the uppermost layer and a chip of a scanning tunneling microscope STM is made to pass through it. The information is recorded by irradiating the information layer with a laser light beam modulated by the recording information and focused on the chip or the medium surface, and making it produce chemical and physical changes on the information layer. Since the information layer is made of a material showing a first and a second excitation states and the changes are generated in the material at the second excitation state, the material is irradiated with a light beam having frequency and intensity enough to excite the material form the first excitation to the second excitation. Consequently, information is recorded only in the area where the laser radiation and STM tunnel current are overlapped and this improves a space resolution and a writing speed.