Patent ID: 8054737

Claim:
An information storage apparatus comprising: an information recording medium having a structure in which a plurality of wire layers are stacked one upon another with a dielectric layer interposed between each adjacent two of the wire layers, each of the wire layers being formed of a plurality of metal wires arranged in a two-dimensional lattice shape in dielectrics except for lattice points, and recording materials each arranged at a corresponding one of the lattice points, the recording materials being provided discretely at the plurality of lattice points that are distributed three-dimensionally; a first optical system which is positioned so as to face a first surface of the information recording medium and which irradiates light selectively onto an end face of one of the plurality of metal wires exposed on the first surface in a two-dimensional array shape; a second optical system which is positioned so as to face a second surface of the information recording medium, the second surface including exposed end faces of metal wires arranged in the direction crossing the metal wires exposed on the first surface and arranged within the same wire layer that the metal wires exposed on the first surface belong to, the second optical system irradiating light selectively onto an end face of one of the plurality of metal wires exposed on the second surface in a two-dimensional array shape; and a control unit to control the positions of the first and second optical systems so as to cause interference, at the position of the recording material provided at a corresponding desired one of the lattice points, between a surface plasmon that is excited, by the irradiation of light from the first optical system, on the metal wire with its end face exposed on the first surface of the information recording medium and a surface plasmon that is excited, by the irradiation of light from the second optical system, on the metal wire with its end face exposed on the second surface of the information recording medium.