Near field magneto-optical head having read and write pinhole apertures

The present invention relates to storage devices for computer systems. In particular, the present invention relates to optical and magneto-optical storage devices. Disclosed is a near field optical recording head for use with light from a light source to read data from and to write data to a surface of an optical recording media. The recording head includes a slider body adapted to fly a first distance above the surface of the optical recording media, the first distance being less than one wavelength of the light from the light source. The recording head also includes separate read and write apertures having dimensions which optimize read and write functions, respectively.