Design of near-field recording optics using truncated hemispherical SIL with cover-layer incident dual recording layers

In this paper, we propose a novel optics design for media inside near-field recording (NFR) using a truncated hemispherical solid immersion lens (HMS). To obtain strong advantage of data protection and high data capacity simultaneously, a truncated HMS based near field optics with cover-layer incident dual recording layers is designed. In this design, to improve the small optical tolerance of the truncated HMS unit and to adjust dual focusing positions, an additional aspheric lens surface is added on top of the truncated HMS and it is combined with zoom optics composed of two single lenses having a low numerical aperture (NA). Also, to compensate for chromatic aberration, which is a serious problem for optics using a blue laser diode, a diffractive optical element is also designed. Using zoom optics, an additional aspheric lens surface, and a diffractive optical element together, the wavefront aberration and chromatic aberration are effectively reduced in a broad range of cover-layer thicknesses and wavelength variations. In addition, in this paper, the effect of a gap induced aberration is investigated by analyzing the different behavior of each TM and TE wave for the cover-layer incident NFR optics.Paper presented at the 15th Annual Symposium on Information Storage and Processing Systems, Santa Clara, CA, USA, 28–29 June, 2005.