No. 1021
	Recent Progress of High-speed and High-density Magneto-optical Recording and Applications
	The Investigation Committee of High-speed and High-density Magneto-optical Recording
	Magnetic disk is expected to be huge mass storage media, which is suitable for coming information technology network era. While, rewritable optical disks should be more popular with high capacity and removability. Especially magneto-optical disk has been applied to small size disk including Mini Disc for portable and reliable media. However not only high recording density but also high data transfer rate must be achieved for more expanded application. Under these backgrounds, “The Investigation Committee of High-speed and High-density Magneto-optical Recording” was established in Magnetics Technology Committee from October 2001 to September 2004. The purpose of investigation was (1) fundamental characteristics of recording materials, (2) ultra high density magneto-optical recording, (3) fusion technology between magneto-optical recording and magnetic recording, (4) high speed recording technology. As a result of investigation for three years, fruitful results below have been obtained. Fundamental characteristics have been sufficiently obtained. Magnetic superresolution and magnetic expansion readout technologies have been much improved. The advantage of thermally assisted magnetic recording has been experimentally confirmed. Prospects to high data transfer rate have been obtained by the development of high efficient optical flying head. Results of investigation on these technology improvement as well as future trend of technologies are described in this report.
	©2005. The Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan