The Characteristics and the Potential of Super Resolution Near-Field Structure

The superresolution near-field structure (super-RENS) was proposed as an alternative optical near-field recording technique last year. In this paper, our approach and the basic principle of super-RENS are briefly reviewed, and the recent results obtained by our group are described. As a result, it was found that the difference of the dielectric layers influences the resolution limit of super-RENS, and the layers with a compressive stress show the highest resolution until 60 nm. The aperture formation mechanism was discussed under the condition of the energy balance between the layer internal stress and the aperture formation free-energy. The principle and the dynamic optical nonlinearities of a new super-RENS disk using silver-oxide are also described.