Extremely high throughput and resolution capability of an optical near-field slider

Summary form only given. For realizing high density/speed near-field optical recording/readout, we demonstrate here a new slider with silicon protruded probe array that is bonded to a glass substrate. The advantages of such a slider are: (1) The high refractive index of the silicon (n=3.67, @/spl lambda/=830 nm) leads to a short effective wavelength inside the probe, which results in high throughput and spatial resolution compared to conventional fiber probes. (2) Data transmission rate increases in proportion to the number of probe in the array. (3) The protruded silicon probe array has high durability because of its bonding to the thick glass substrate.