Study on the mechanism of super-resolution near-field structure high-density optical data storage

The super-resolution near-field structure (Super-RENS), glass/SiN/Sb/SiN, which is promising for near-field ultrahigh-density optical data storage (ODS), has been proposed and investigated in recent years. The recording mark size is a few tens of nanometers, far beyond the diffraction limit of traditional optics. The mechanism of this Super-RENS, including the working principle of the nonlinear optical layers and the size reduction of the recording marks, has not been clearly understood. In this study, the action of sandwich multilayer films in Super-RENS is mainly investigated. The behavior of the optical wave at the boundary between two dielectric media is discussed in detail, and the resonance characteristic of the surface plasmon wave (SPW) is analyzed. The mechanism of ultrahigh-density ODS using Super-RENS is explained quantitatively. It is demonstrated that the wave effect is larger than the thermal effect in Super-RENS.