Novel Plasmonic Near-Field Transducer for Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording

Jacek Gosciniak Photonics Group, Tyndall National Institute, Cork, Munster, Ireland Brian Corbett Photonics Group, Tyndall National Institute, Cork, Munster, Ireland Marcus B. Mooney R&D, Seagate Technology, Londonderry, UK Mark A. Gubbins R&D, Seagate Technology, Londonderry, UK

The efficiency of novel near-field plasmonic transducer designs, as can be used in HAMR (heat-assisted magnetic recording) systems, are analyzed with simulations performed using the finite-element method (FEM). To validate the simulations, the data of the new transducer designs were compared with the published results of the lollipop transducer [1] where our simulations (Fig.1) show a good agreement with the reported experimental data. The investigated transducer shows a five-fold improvement in terms of the electric field enhancement while achieving a spot size of 20-30nm and a ratio between the hotspot and side-lobe which exceed 36 which is at least 8 times higher compared to the lollipop transducer.

The transducer was designed to excite quadrupole-like and higher order modes to ensure better impedance matching with a recording media and, consequently, better coupling of power to the recording media. In addition, it ensures better heat dissipation to the surrounding media which will lead to improved transducer reliability.

[1] W. A. Challener et al.,”Heat-assisted magnetic recording by a near-field transducer with efficient optical energy transfer”, Nature Photon. 3, 220–224 (2009).

Figure 1. (a) Cross-sectional distribution of the electric field of the lollipop design from Seagate. (b) Comparison of electric field enhancement of the lollipop design (red line) and novel proposed transducer (blue line).

jacek.gosciniak@tyndall.ie









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