Fabrication of a high throughput apertured tip by the use of birds beak effect: a potential fabrication technique for near-field optical data storage

An optical recording device with an atomic force microscope (AFM) tip, having a sub wavelength aperture, has been considered as one of candidates for Th/in/sup 2/ data density in near-field optical storage technology. However, the low optical throughput of a near field aperture limits the practical use of the near-field optical storage technique. This limit can be avoided by the enhancement of the throughput of the near-field apertured tip and the development of new recording media with low phase change temperature. To increase the optical throughput of an AFM/near field apertured tip, several fabrication techniques have been proposed so far. In this paper we present a simple fabrication process of a near-field high throughput apertured tip using a bird's beak effect. Using the bird's beak effect and field oxidation, a higher throughput aperture and larger cone angled tip are fabricated, simultaneously.