The solid immersion lens (SIL) near-field magneto-optical (MO) recording te
chnique offers a significant increase in areal density through near-field r
esolution enhancement. Since the near-field recording scheme requires close
proximity of the optical recording head and the magnetic medium, the SIL M
O recording setup is usually changed to a "first surface" recording. This r
equires further optimization of the optical flying head design and a MO med
ium. In this work marks as small as 150 nm using a SIL with a 680 nm laser
source and a TbFeCo magneto-optical medium were recorded. The minimum size
of a recorded mark is strongly dependent on the slider flying height, the f
lying attitude, and lens centering. It should be emphasized that recording
power as small as 4 mW is sufficient enough to achieve carrier-to-noise rat
io of more than 30 dB. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(
99)38008-7].