Scanning laser techniques for dynamic thermo-magnetic recording onto stationary media

Abstract Scanning laser microscopes (SLMs) have been used to characterise the magnetic properties of materials for some time (J. Magn. Magn. Mater. 95(1) (1991); IEEE Trans. Magn. 31(6 Pt. 1) (1995)). An SLM has been designed to facilitate a number of operating modes: both for writing and reading magneto-optical data. The current SLM is capable of thermo-magnetically recording bits onto magneto-optical thin films. Unlike previous SLMs, the current instrument has been designed to write bits both statically and dynamically onto stationary media. It will be used to write to magneto-optic (MO) disk material thermo-magnetically prior to imaging. Images may be derived from the longitudinal and polar magneto-optic Kerr effects, which are wavelength dependent, using the appropriate laser wavelength. In this paper the two configurations for dynamic recording are described.