Abstract

An efficient and compact method of introducing light into a magnetic recording head for use in Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) is proposed. The technique uses a polymer waveguide to source light into a novel metallic structure consisting of a sub-wavelength C-aperture waveguide with a 90º bend and a tapered section. The structure is modeled using Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) simulations and it is shown that the 90º bend allows for low loss near-field optical access into a conventional magnetic recording head while the tapered C-waveguide allows for maximum input coupling and a minimum spot size at the recording media.

© 2007 Optical Society of America