Grazing-incidence optical magnetic recording with super-resolution.

Heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) is often considered the next major step in the storage industry: it is predicted to increase the storage capacity, the read/write speed and the data lifetime of future hard disk drives. However, despite more than a decade of development work, the reliability is still a prime concern. Featuring an inherently fragile surface-plasmon resonator as a highly localized heat source, as part of a near-field transducer (NFT), the current industry concepts still fail to deliver drives with sufficient lifetime.

Directed self-assembly of nanorod networks: bringing the top down to the bottom up.

Self-assembled electrodeposited nanorod materials have been shown to offer an exciting landscape for a wide array of research ranging from nanophotonics through to biosensing and magnetics. However, until now, the scope for site-specific preparation of the nanorods on wafers has been limited to local area definition. Further there is little or no lateral control of nanorod height.