Abstract

Recent advances in near-field optics have extended the resolution achievable in optical microscopy to ~12 run.¹ Meanwhile, application of near-field optics to data storage has shown the possibility of recording and read-out of data at densities of up to 45 Gbit/in² (75 times the density of current optical storage systems).² However, the data rate has so far been limited by the small powers (~50 nW) available through the commonly used tapered optical fiber probes. Such low powers limit the data rate through degradation in SNR to 1-10 kHz in the case of a passive fiber and ~100 kHz for a fiber laser probe.³

© 1996 Optical Society of America