Hyperbolic metamaterial-based near-field transducer for heat assisted magnetic recording head

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10026421-B1
Application number	US-201715437995-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Feb 21, 2017
Priority date	Feb 18, 2016
Publication date	Jul 17, 2018
Grant date	Jul 17, 2018

Abstract

An apparatus comprises a slider configured for heat-assisted magnetic recording. A near-field transducer comprising a peg is situated at or near an air bearing surface of the slider, and an optical waveguide of the slider is configured to couple light from a light source to the near-field transducer. The peg comprises a hyperbolic metamaterial, and the near-field transducer may further include an enlarged portion from which the peg extends, where the enlarged portion may also comprise a hyperbolic metamaterial.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus, comprising:
a slider configured for heat-assisted magnetic recording;
a near-field transducer comprising a peg situated at or near an air bearing surface of the slider, the peg comprising a hyperbolic metamaterial comprising TiN/Al x Sc 1-x N; and
an optical waveguide of the slider configured to couple light from a light source to the near-field transducer.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the near-field transducer further comprises an enlarged portion from which the peg extends and the enlarged portion comprises a hyperbolic metamaterial.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the hyperbolic metamaterial of the peg and of the enlarged portion is the same.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein x is between about 0.7 and about 0.9.

5. An apparatus, comprising:
a slider configured for heat-assisted magnetic recording;
a near-field transducer comprising a peg situated at or near an air bearing surface of the slider, the peg comprising a hyperbolic metamaterial comprising ZrN/Al x Sc 1-x N; and
an optical waveguide of the slider configured to couple light from a light source to the near-field transducer.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the peg comprises a plurality of sublayers, the sublayers comprising alternating a metallic sublayer and an insulating sublayer, where each sublayer is proximate the air bearing surface.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the near-field transducer comprises an enlarged body and the peg extends from the enlarged body.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the hyperbolic metamaterial is configured to form a hotspot on a magnetic recording medium, the hotspot having a predefined shape.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the hyperbolic metamaterial is configured to form a hotspot on a magnetic recording medium, the hotspot having a substantially square shape.

10. An apparatus, comprising:
a slider configured for heat-assisted magnetic recording;
a near-field transducer comprising a peg situated at or near an air bearing surface of the slider, the peg comprising a plurality of sublayers, the sublayers comprising alternating a metallic sublayer and an Al x Sc 1-x N sublayer to comprise a hyperbolic metamaterial; and
an optical waveguide of the slider configured to couple light from a light source to the near-field transducer.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the metallic sublayer comprises TiN.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the metallic sublayer comprises ZrN.

13. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the near-field transducer further comprises an enlarged portion from which the peg extends and the enlarged portion comprises a hyperbolic metamaterial.

14. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the hyperbolic metamaterial is configured to form a hotspot on a magnetic recording medium, the hotspot having a substantially square shape.

15. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the near-field transducer further comprises an enlarged portion from which the peg extends and the enlarged portion comprises a hyperbolic metamaterial.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the hyperbolic metamaterial of the peg and of the enlarged portion is the same.

17. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein x is between about 0.7 and about 0.9.

18. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the peg comprises a plurality of sublayers, the sublayers comprising alternating a metallic sublayer and an insulating sublayer, where each sublayer is proximate the air bearing surface.

19. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the hyperbolic metamaterial of the peg and of the enlarged portion is the same.

20. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein x is between about 0.7 and about 0.9.

Assignees

• Seagate Technology Llc

Inventors

• Barbosa Neira Andres David
• Fernandez Garcia Roberto
• Hardy Michael James
• Gan Choon How
• Gubbins Mark Anthony
• Zavaliche Florin
• Zhao Tong
• Blaber Martin Giles

Classifications

• G11B5/6088

  Optical waveguide in or on flying head · CPC title

• G11B2005/0021

  Thermally assisted recording using an auxiliary energy source for heating the recording layer locally to assist the magnetization reversal · CPC title

• G11B5/314 Primary

  where the layers are extra layers normally not provided in the transducing structure, e.g. optical layers (G11B5/3196 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G11B5/1874

  specially adapted for composite pole pieces, e.g. for avoiding "pseudo-gap" · CPC title

• G11B5/1872

  for improving the form of the electrical signal transduced, e.g. compensation of "contour effect" · CPC title