High density recording and plasmon technology with Ag nanostructures

In this paper, we propose a unique method to produce Ag nanoparticles and nanowires covering a whole surface of a 12-cm optical disk substrate, and describe the signal characteristics of the disks. By applying local plasmons, recording characteristics have greatly been improved; for example, the signal carrier to noise ratio (CNR) of 100-nm recording pattern is now beyond 40 dB comparable to conventional optical data storage systems.