Patent ID: 8164988

Claim:
A magnetic recording system comprising: a patterned magnetic recording medium comprising a generally planar substrate and a plurality of discrete spaced-apart magnetic islands separated by nonmagnetic spaces, each island comprising magnetizable material, the islands being formed of a metal or metal alloy and the spaces being formed of a non-metallic material; a laser for generating light; a polarizer for circularly polarizing the laser light; a near-field transducer for directing the circularly polarized light to individual islands on the substrate, the near-field transducer comprising a metal and having an active region; a carrier connected to the transducer for moving the transducer to individual islands, the carrier being maintained with the transducer active region less than the laser light wavelength from the individual islands; and wherein the islands have a characteristic lateral in-plane dimension generally parallel to the substrate and the active region has a lateral in-plane dimension that is less than the wavelength of the laser light.