An approach for recording and readout beyond the diffraction limit with an Sb thin film

A technique for recording and retrieving small marks beyond the optical diffraction limit was proposed. The basic experiment with this technique was also carried out at a constant linear velocity of 2.0 m/s, rotating a disk with a multi-layered structure of Sb and GeSbTe, which were separated by a thin film of SiN. By use of the optically nonlinear property of the Sb thin film, carrier to noise ratio of more than 10 dB was obtained from recorded marks of 90 nm, using an optical system with the laser wavelength of 686 nm and a numerical aperture of 0.6. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(98)02141-X].