Patent ID: 6839306
Filing Date: 2005-01-04
Classification: G11B

Abstract:
1. A device, comprising: a disk holder operable to hold and spin an optical disk, said disk having a transparent substrate having first and second opposing substrate surfaces, an active recording layer formed over said second substrate surface, and a reflective layer formed over said active recording layer; an optical head with an optical numerical aperture greater than unity and less than a refractive index of the transparent substrate and having an optical interfacing surface which is operable to couple radiation energy to and from the optical disk for reading data from or writing data to the optical disk; an actuator engaged to said optical head to move and position said optical head facing the first substrate surface of the disk by a spacing less than one wavelength of the radiation energy; and an electromagnet coupled to said actuator and positioned on the same side of the said second substrate surface to produce a magnetic field at a location of said active recording layer where said optical head focuses an optical beam.