Optical field study of near-field optical recording with a solid immersionlens

The use of a solid immersion lens (SIL) is an important technique for incre asing areal density in optical recording. Here an approximate method is pre sented for analyzing the optical fields in a SIL above a half-space and a S IL above a multilayer recording medium. Both propagating and evanescent com ponents are included in the distribution of fields below the SIL. An approx imate closed-form expression is given for the decay of the intensity away f rom the SIL surface above a half-space. In the case of a SIL above a record ing medium the model describes the strong oscillations that are observed in the reflected Kerr rotation and ellipticity as the medium spacing is varie d. These oscillations are attributed to standing waves in the propagating f ield component. (C) 2000 Optical Society of America. OCIS codes: 110.0180, 210.0210, 210.3810, 260.1960.