Near-Field Recording with a Solid Immersion Lens on Polymer Cover-layer Protected Discs

Abstract

Recent demonstrations have shown that near-field optical recording with a solid immersion lens in a conventional actuator is a strong candidate for optical storage beyond Blu-ray Disc. All results published so far were obtained with so-called first-surface configurations, in which the data layer is not protected by a cover-layer. In this paper we demonstrate a next step towards creating a system suitable for a commercial product with removable discs. First results are presented for read-out of discs with a few µm protective polymer cover-layer and a solid immersion lens with NA=1.45 and λ=405 nm.