An optical flying head for a near-field recording system: part II

At the last ODS 2001, we reported a SIL-embedded optical flying head combined with fiber optics for a near-field recording (NFR) system (Tech. Dig. Optical Data Storage, April 2001). We report further study of an optical flying head without fiber optics for a near-field recording system. After describing the configuration of the optical flying head, the readout signals and tolerances are presented. The C/N (carrier to noise) ratio was 49.53 dB for 0.2 gm of the mark length. The tolerances of relative tilt and decenter were /spl plusmn/1deg and /spl plusmn/100 gm, respectively. We think a more practical head structure can be realized by miniaturizing the condensing optics on the flying head.