Design for cooling near-field transducer using surface plasmon polariton waveguide for heat-assisted magnetic recording

Heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) is studied to realize a high recording density of over 4 Tbit/in.(2). The HAMR process requires light to be concentrated into a small area, which becomes heated on a recording medium. We studied a plasmonic waveguide (PWG) for surface plasmon polariton (SPP) propagation, which can easily cool down the near-field transducer (NFT) at the end of the PWG. It is important for the PWG to efficiently concentrate SPP to the tip of a magnetic head. We analyzed a PWG structure with protection layers, such as diamond-like carbon (DLC) and lubricant layers, to concentrate SPP onto the media and to effectively heat the recording area while keeping the NFT temperature below 100 degrees C. (C) 2018 The Japan Society of Applied Physics