JP2000260050A - Optical recording/reproducing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an optical recording/reproducing device precisely detecting a reflection wave from an information recording medium. SOLUTION: This optical recording/reproducing device is provided with a slider 3 driving an optical disk 1 while being placed in a non-contact state with the optical disk 1 and an optical head 200 fixed to the slider 3, and the optical head 200 is provided with a fiber probe 5 having one sharpened end part 5a, and the other end part provided with a 1/4 wavelength plate 7 and a three-dimensional wave-guide 9 holding a polarization plane of a beam polarized by the 1/4 wavelength plate 7, and guides an incident beam to the optical disk 1, and polarizes the reflection beam reflected by the optical disk 1 and the incident beam so that the polarizing states are orthogonally intersected with each other.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to an optical recording / reproducing apparatus, and more particularly, to an optical recording / reproducing apparatus for an optical disk as an information recording medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art At present, as one of information recording media, there is an optical disk in which information is recorded on and reproduced from a disk by light. Of such light, in a rewritable optical disk, two methods of magneto-optics and phase change are known as typical methods for recording information. In the method using magneto-magnetism, a perpendicular magnetic film (generally, an amorphous alloy thin film composed of a rare earth metal and a transition metal) on a disk surface is irradiated with light while applying a magnetic field, thereby locally changing the direction of the magnetic field. . In the method using the phase change, a phase change film (a film formed of a specific polymer material) is irradiated with light to locally change the refractive index of the phase change film. In any of the above methods, the spot diameter of the light applied to the optical disk surface is an important parameter for determining the size of the recording mark. As such light, laser light condensed by an optical lens is used, and the spot diameter is limited by a diffraction limit.

In recent years, a method has been proposed in which a recording mark having a diameter equal to or less than the diameter limited by the diffraction limit is created by using the near-field optical effect to increase the recording density of an optical disk. According to this method, the surface of an optical fiber for guiding a laser beam to the surface of an optical disk is coated with a metal thin film, the tip is sharpened, and a very small (about 1 μm) opening is provided at the sharpened tip. Then, the optical disk is irradiated with light extracted from the opening to perform optical recording. In this case, the scanning of the optical fiber is performed by a raster scan using a piezo element as an actuator. However, such an actuator has a problem in information recording / reproducing speed depending on the scanning range and speed.

As an invention for solving such a problem, for example, there is an invention described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-198830. According to the present invention, a slider is provided which is placed in non-contact with the optical disk while being close to the optical disk, and the slider has a minute opening. The near-field light is generated by passing the light emitted from the light source through the minute opening. According to the present invention, the slider is located at a position of several tens nm from the surface of the optical disk. The minute opening has a substantially conical shape having an apex on the optical disk side, with a maximum diameter (bottom of the cone) of 1 μm and a minimum diameter (apex) of 200 nm.
It is.

[0005] Proceedings of the 6th Research Discussion Meeting of the Near-field Optics Research Group (July 3, 1997, Hitachi,
Muranishi et al.) Describe that a sharpened optical fiber is fixed to a slider and information is recorded and reproduced on an optical disk.

[0006]

However, in the above inventions, the slider and the photodetector are provided on opposite sides of the optical disk, and when reproducing the optical disk, the incident light irradiated on the optical disk is reflected. It is configured to detect propagating light instead of reflected light. For this reason,
The optical disk must be capable of transmitting propagation light, and the material of the substrate is limited.

In the invention described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-198830, a high precision is required for a minute opening formed in the slider. Therefore, when such a configuration is mass-produced, the reproducibility of the minute opening cannot be sufficiently obtained, and there is a concern that a problem may occur in recording and reproducing information on the optical disk. The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and a first object of the present invention is to provide an optical recording / reproducing apparatus capable of recording information at a higher density and further capable of recording and reproducing at a high speed. It is a second object of the present invention to provide an optical recording / reproducing apparatus capable of detecting a reflected wave from an information recording medium with high accuracy.

[0008]

The above-mentioned problems can be solved by the following means. That is, the invention according to claim 1 includes a slider that is driven while being placed in non-contact with an optical disk type information recording medium, and an optical head fixed to the slider, wherein the optical head includes: One sharpened end, a quarter wave plate and the quarter
A fiber probe having another end provided with a waveguide portion that holds a polarization plane of light polarized by the wavelength plate,
The present invention is characterized in that incident light is guided to an information recording medium, and that the reflected light and the incident light reflected by the information recording medium are polarized so that their polarization states are orthogonal to each other.

With this configuration, incident light and reflected light can be separated and extracted from the optical head. Also, when detecting reflected light, this detection can be performed on the side that emits incident light, and it is not necessary to configure the information recording medium with a transparent member.

[0010] According to a second aspect of the present invention, the waveguide section includes:
It is characterized by being constituted by a three-dimensional waveguide.

With such a configuration, when guiding light polarized by the quarter-wave plate, the plane of polarization of the polarized light can be maintained.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the waveguide section includes:
At least a part thereof has two three-dimensional waveguides arranged adjacent to each other, and the three-dimensional waveguide constitutes a directional coupler for separating the traveling directions of the incident light and the reflected light. It is assumed that.

With this configuration, the light polarized by the quarter-wave plate can be separated in the traveling direction while maintaining its polarization plane.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, a polarization maintaining fiber is used for an introduction part for introducing the collimated incident light and a derivation part for extracting the reflected light with respect to the three-dimensional waveguide. It is characterized by the following.

With this configuration, incident light,
The reflected light propagates through the polarization maintaining fiber and is guided. For this reason, the paths of the incident light and the reflected light can be set arbitrarily, and the configuration relating to the incident light and the reflected light can be freely arranged with respect to the slider.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the waveguide portion is
It is characterized by comprising a polarization maintaining fiber.

With this configuration, it is possible to realize a configuration in which the polarization planes of the incident light and the reflected light polarized at a lower cost are maintained.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, the fiber probe has a substantially circular opening through which the incident light is emitted at a sharpened end, and the diameter of the opening is 1 μm or less. It is a feature.

With this configuration, a spot light having a diameter equal to or smaller than the diffraction limit of light can be realized.

The invention according to claim 7 further comprises a light source for emitting the incident light, a detecting unit for detecting the reflected light, and a driving unit for driving the slider, wherein the light source and the detecting unit are connected to each other. The light source and the detection unit formed integrally with each other are fixed to a driving unit that drives the slider.

With this configuration, it is not necessary to drive the light source and the detection unit so as to follow the slider.
The operating speed of the slider is not limited by the driving speed of the light source or the detecting unit. Further, vibration applied to the light source and the detection unit can be reduced.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a slider which is driven in a non-contact manner with respect to an optical disk type information recording medium, a driving portion which drives the slider, and a fiber having one end sharpened. An optical head that includes a probe and guides incident light to an information recording medium; a light source that emits the incident light; a detection unit that detects reflected light of the incident light reflected on the optical disc; the incident light and the reflected light And a quarter-wave plate that polarizes the light so that its polarization states are orthogonal to each other. The light source, the detection unit, and the quarter-wave plate are integrally formed and fixed to the driving unit. On the other hand, the fiber probe is fixed to the slider.

With this configuration, incident light and reflected light can be separated and extracted from the optical head. Also, when detecting reflected light, this detection can be performed on the side that emits incident light, and it is not necessary to configure the information recording medium with a transparent member. In addition, there is no need to drive the light source and the detection unit following the slider, and the operating speed of the slider is not limited by the driving speed of the light source and the detection unit, and vibration applied to the light source and the detection unit can be reduced. .
Further, according to the eighth aspect of the present invention, the incident light and the reflected light can be separated closer to the detection unit, and it is not necessary to maintain the polarization plane.

[0024]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments 1 to 3 of the present invention will be described below. (Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining an optical recording / reproducing apparatus of the present invention, which is common to each embodiment.
In the illustrated configuration, the spindle motor 6
And a drive unit 2 such as an XY stage, for example. The optical disc 1 is set on the spindle motor 2. Further, a suspension section 4 made of a leaf spring is connected to the drive section 2, and a slider 3 is connected to the suspension section 4. The optical head of the present invention is fixed to the slider 3 and is driven integrally with the slider 3. In the first embodiment, the optical head and the slider 3 are fixed by bonding. Above the slider 3 and the optical head, there is provided an optical system for inputting light to the optical disk 1 to the optical head or for inputting reflected light from the optical head. 1 for recording and reproducing information.

The spindle motor 6 rotates the optical disc 1 such that a portion of the optical disc 1 where information is recorded and reproduced always rotates at a constant speed. At the same time, the drive unit 2 drives the suspension unit 4 at a constant speed in the radial direction. As a result, the slider 3 connected to the suspension unit 4 can record and reproduce information on the entire area of the optical disc 1.

Next, the configuration of the first embodiment will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. The optical recording / reproducing apparatus according to the first embodiment includes a slider 3 that is driven while being in non-contact with the optical disc 1, and an optical head 200 fixed to the slider 3. The optical head includes a fiber probe 5 having one sharpened end, 5a, and another end 5b provided with a quarter-wave plate 7 and a waveguide. In the first embodiment, the three-dimensional waveguide 9 is used for the waveguide section.

The optical system 100 according to the first embodiment includes a laser diode 10 as a light source of a laser beam, a collimation lens 11, a polarization beam splitter 12 for polarizing light in different directions depending on a light incident direction, and an optical disk. It has a photodiode 15 for detecting one reflected light, an objective lens 13 and an objective lens 14. Such an optical system 100 has the same configuration as a conventional optical pickup, and is configured by a mechanism such as a slider motor (not shown).
Like the slider 3, the optical disk 1 is driven in the radial direction.

The distance between the slider 3 and the surface of the optical disk 1 is determined by the rigidity of the suspension unit 4 and the gravity acting on the mass, and the wind pressure generated between the slider 3 and the rotating optical disk 1. In the first to third embodiments, the distance is designed to be about several tens nm. Further, the end 5a of the fiber probe 5 in the optical head is sharpened so that near-field light or sufficiently narrowed propagation light can be irradiated. Recording (writing), erasing, and reproducing information.

The sharpening of the end portion 5a can be realized, for example, by the following method. That is, when a quartz fiber is used as the fiber probe 5, the tip is first sharpened by selective chemical etching with a mixed solution of hydrofluoric acid. In such chemical etching, the tip of the produced quartz fiber can be sharpened until its radius of curvature becomes several nm. Next, a metal film having a thickness of 100 to 200 nm is coated on the surface of the sharpened quartz fiber. This coating deposits a metal film while rotating the sharpened tip of the quartz fiber diagonally,
Alternatively, it is performed by coating an organic thin film. The coating of the metal film and the organic film can prevent light from leaking from the tapered portion of the quartz fiber.

Next, a minute opening portion (this portion is referred to as a minute opening portion) is provided in the coated probe portion by wet etching or anisotropic etching of silicon. By setting the diameter of the minute opening to 1 μm or less, a conventional optical system can realize a spot diameter having a size equal to or less than the diffraction limit.

On the other hand, the quarter-wave plate 7 provided at the end 5b on the rear side of the end a (with the end 5a in front) is
The optical path difference between linearly polarized lights oscillating in directions perpendicular to each other is 1 /
It is a wave plate that changes by four wavelengths, and is formed of a parallel plate surface of quartz polished parallel to the optical axis or muscovite. Such a quarter-wave plate 7 is arranged so as to polarize light heading toward the optical disk 1 (outward path of light) and light reflected from the optical disk 1 (return path of light) into polarization states orthogonal to each other. Configuration.

The three-dimensional waveguide 9 disposed on the rear side is formed using a material such as LiNbO ₃ , LiTaO ₃ , Pyrex, soda glass, chalcogenide amorphous thin film, and polymer thin film. . The shape of the three-dimensional waveguide 9 is designed such that the polarization state of the incident light and the reflected light polarized by the quarter-wave plate 7 can be maintained inside.

The above configuration operates as follows. First, laser light is oscillated from the laser diode 10, and enters the polarization beam splitter 12 through the collimation lens 11. Then, the light passes through the polarizing beam splitter 12 in parallel with the incident direction, is condensed by the objective lens 13, and then enters the three-dimensional waveguide 9. At this time, focusing on the laser light three-dimensional waveguide 9 can be performed relatively easily by the ordinary knife edge method or the critical aberration method.

The laser light enters the three-dimensional waveguide 9 in a state of linearly polarized light. Then, the TE0 mode is excited in the three-dimensional waveguide 9 and propagates. After that, the laser light
The optical disc is irradiated as spot light having a diameter equal to or smaller than the wavelength of the laser light from the probe portion of the fiber probe 5 through the four-wavelength plate 7.

The incident light is reflected by the optical disk 1 to become reflected light (also referred to as signal light), and enters the quarter-wave plate 7 and the three-dimensional waveguide 9 again. At this time, the reflected light is polarized by the quarter-wave plate 7 so that its polarization state is orthogonal to the polarization of the incident light, and the objective lens 13 is held by the three-dimensional waveguide 9 while its polarization state is maintained. Then, the light enters the polarization beam splitter 12. The polarization beam splitter 12 separates the incident reflected light from the incident light. The separated reflected light is detected by the photodetector 15 as signal light.

As described above, in the optical recording / reproducing apparatus according to the first embodiment, the reflected light serving as the signal light and the incident light are polarized such that their polarization states are orthogonal to each other. For this reason, the influence of the incident light and the signal light on each other can be reduced, and crosstalk can be prevented to improve the signal light extraction efficiency. Further, since the influence of the incident light on the reflected light serving as the signal light can be reduced, it is possible to irradiate the laser light to the optical disk 1 and to detect the reflected light using one optical system provided on the upper side of the optical disk 1. . Therefore, the optical disk 1
It is not necessary to use a transparent member as the material of the optical disc 1, and the choice of the material of the optical disc 1 can be expanded.

In the first embodiment, the fiber probe 5 can be made to follow the rotation only by driving in the radial direction of the optical disk 1. In addition, the optical system that is driven to follow the rotation can use the existing pickup configuration. Can be used.
Therefore, information can be recorded on or reproduced from the optical disc 1 at the same speed as that of the conventional optical recording / reproducing apparatus. Further, in the first embodiment, even when the fiber probe 5 is attached to the slider 3, high accuracy is not required. In addition, since the processing of the fiber probe 5 uses a technology established in the field of semiconductors and the like, the processing can be stabilized, and the requirements regarding yield and reliability can be sufficiently satisfied.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For example, in the first embodiment, the quarter-wave plate 7 is disposed in front of the fiber probe 5, but this arrangement is reversed (the fiber probe 5 is connected to the end 5b).
And the 1/4 wavelength plate 7 is provided on the rear side), or the 1/4 wavelength plate 7 may be disposed between the fiber probe 5 and the three-dimensional waveguide. .

Further, a three-dimensional waveguide 9 is used as a waveguide part.
Instead, the same effect can be obtained even if the polarization maintaining fiber is fixed without venting or twisting. The polarization maintaining fiber is a member that is lower in cost than the three-dimensional waveguide. Therefore, with such a configuration, the optical recording / reproducing apparatus of the present invention can be realized at lower cost.

(Embodiment 2) Next, Embodiment 2 of the present invention will be described. The waveguide section of the second embodiment is configured to have two three-dimensional waveguides at least partially arranged adjacent to each other. The three-dimensional waveguide constitutes a directional coupler that separates the traveling directions of the incident light and the reflected light, and further includes an introduction part for introducing the incident light into the waveguide, and a derivation part for deriving the reflected light. Provided with a polarization maintaining fiber.

The optical recording / reproducing apparatus of the second embodiment will be described below with reference to FIG. Note that the same components as those in FIG. 2 in FIG. 3 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be partially omitted. The configuration shown in FIG.
It has an optical system 101 arranged on the optical disk 1, a slider 3, and an optical head 201 attached to the slider 3. Then, the optical head 201 is connected to the end 5a.
The fiber probe 5 includes a sharpened fiber probe 5, a quarter-wave plate 7 provided on the end 5b side of the fiber probe 5, and a waveguide section 90. Further, the waveguide section 90 includes
It has two three-dimensional waveguides 9a and 9b.

The waveguide section 90 constitutes a directional coupler by arranging the three-dimensional waveguide 9a and the three-dimensional waveguide 9b so as to be adjacent to each other in a certain section. In this directional coupler, incident light and reflected light can be separated by appropriately setting the distance (coupling length) at which the three-dimensional waveguide 9a and the three-dimensional waveguide 9b are arranged adjacent to each other. . For example, for incident light, T
When the E0 mode is excited and the reflected light is in the TM0 mode, the coupling length is set such that only the light in the TM0 mode is incident on the three-dimensional waveguide 9a toward the photodiode 15.

The waveguide section 90 constituting such a directional coupler is also made of, for example, LiNbO ₃ , LiTaO ₃ , Pyrex, soda glass, and chalcogenide, similarly to the three-dimensional waveguide 9 of the first embodiment. It is formed using a material such as a crystalline thin film or a polymer thin film.

Furthermore, in the second embodiment, the polarization maintaining fiber 91a is connected to the reflected light guiding portion of the three-dimensional waveguide 9a, and the polarization maintaining fiber is connected to the incident light introducing portion of the three-dimensional waveguide 9b. 91b is connected. The polarization maintaining fiber 91a is arranged so that the reflected light is guided to the photodiode 15, and the polarization maintaining fiber 91b is arranged so that the incident light enters the quarter-wave plate 7. . Such a polarization maintaining fiber 91
At least one of the a and 91b is fixed to the suspension unit 4 so that venting and twisting do not occur.

In the second embodiment described above, the waveguide 90
Then, the incident light and the reflected light are polarized so that their polarization states are orthogonal, and the polarized light is further polarized by the polarization maintaining fiber 91.
a, The polarization maintaining fiber 91b is propagated and guided. Therefore, it is not necessary to drive the optical system 101 so as to follow the slider 3, and the configuration of the optical recording / reproducing apparatus can be simplified.

In the second embodiment, the vibration applied to the optical system 101 is eliminated by not driving the optical system 101, so that information can be recorded and reproduced on the optical disk 1 more stably. Also, since the optical path is separated between the incident light system and the reflected light system, signal crosstalk is prevented,
The efficiency of extracting reflected light as signal light can be increased.

(Embodiment 3) Next, Embodiment 2 of the present invention will be described. The optical recording / reproducing apparatus according to the third embodiment is configured such that a laser diode 10 as a light source and a photodiode 15 for detecting reflected light are integrally formed, and these are fixed to the drive unit 2. Hereinafter, such an optical recording and reproducing apparatus according to the third embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. In addition,
The same components as those in FIG. 2 in FIG. 4 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be partially omitted.

That is, FIG. 4 shows an optical disk 1, an optical system 102 disposed on the optical disk 1, and a slider 3.
And an optical head 202 attached to the slider 3. Further, the optical recording / reproducing apparatus according to the third embodiment directs the incident light emitted from the optical system 102 to the optical head 202.
Alternatively, it has a mirror 19 for directing reflected light (both incident light and reflected light indicated by b in the figure) emitted from the optical head 202 to the optical system 102.

The optical system 102 according to the third embodiment has a laser diode 10, an objective lens 11, an objective lens 14, a polarizing beam splitter 12, and a photodiode 15, all of which are integrated into a unit 30 to form an integral unit. ing. The unit 30 is fixed to the drive unit 2 to which the suspension unit 4 is connected so as to drive the slider 3 in the radial direction. On the other hand, like the optical head 200 of the first embodiment, the optical head 202 has a fiber probe 5 having a sharpened end 5a and a quarter-wave plate 7 provided on the end 5b side of the fiber probe 5. , And a three-dimensional waveguide 9. In the third embodiment, the incident light and the reflected light b are bent by the mirror 19 after passing over the suspension unit 4 and are incident on the three-dimensional waveguide 9 by the objective lens 13. In addition, this objective lens 13
It is also possible to replace with selfocrines.

According to the third embodiment, it is not necessary to drive a relatively heavy lens or diode in the optical recording / reproducing apparatus so as to follow the slider 3. For this reason, the speed limit for recording and reproducing information is further relaxed. Further, in such a configuration, since the optical system 102 is not driven, there is no disturbance due to vibration.
Measurement accuracy can be further improved.

In the third embodiment, any structure may be used as long as the optical system is unitized and fixed.
In addition to the configuration described above, a plurality of modified examples can be considered. One of the modifications is shown in FIG. The optical recording / reproducing apparatus shown in FIG.
The optical recording and reproducing apparatus shown in FIG.
The same components are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description is partially omitted.

The optical recording / reproducing apparatus shown in FIG. 5 comprises a laser diode 10, a photodiode 15, a 波長 wavelength plate 7
And an optical system 103 having an objective lens 11, an objective lens 14, and a beam splitter 12, and an optical head 203 having a fiber probe 5 having a sharpened end 5a. The optical system 103 integrally forms the laser diode 10, the photodiode 15, the 波長 wavelength plate 7, the objective lenses 11 and 14, and the beam splitter 12 to form a unit 40, which is fixed to the drive unit 2. ing.

The fiber probe 5 is connected to the slider 3
Incident light polarized by the quarter-wave plate 7,
The reflected light is made to directly enter the beam splitter 12. This eliminates the need to hold the polarization plane of the light polarized by the quarter-wave plate 7 with the three-dimensional waveguide, and can eliminate the three-dimensional waveguide. Therefore, z
In the example shown in FIG. 5, the optical recording / reproducing apparatus of the third embodiment can be configured more easily.

[0054]

The present invention described above has the following effects. That is, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the incident light and the reflected light are separated and extracted from the optical head, and the signal crosstalk can be reduced. Therefore, it is possible to provide an optical recording / reproducing apparatus capable of detecting a reflected wave from an information recording medium with high accuracy. Also, when detecting reflected light, it is not necessary to configure the information recording medium with a transparent member,
The degree of freedom in selecting the material of the information recording medium is increased.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the polarization plane of the light polarized by the quarter wavelength plate can be maintained, and the crosstalk of the signal can be further reduced.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the traveling direction can be separated while maintaining the polarization plane of the polarized light, and the signal crosstalk can be further reduced.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the structure relating to the incident light and the reflected light can be freely arranged with respect to the slider, and the apparatus can be constructed relatively easily. According to the fourth aspect of the invention, for example, it is not necessary to drive members such as a light source of incident light and a detector of reflected light so as to follow the slider, thereby simplifying the apparatus configuration.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, a configuration for maintaining the polarization plane of the incident light and the reflected light polarized at a lower cost can be realized, and the cost of the optical recording / reproducing apparatus can be reduced.

According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, a spot light having a diameter smaller than the diffraction limit of light can be realized, information can be recorded at a higher density, and the recorded information can be reproduced. Therefore, it is possible to provide an optical recording / reproducing apparatus capable of recording information at a high density and reproducing the information recorded at a high density.

The seventh aspect of the present invention can provide an optical recording / reproducing apparatus that can perform high-speed recording and reproduction without the operation speed of the slider being limited by the driving speed of the light source and the detection unit. In addition, it is possible to provide an optical recording / reproducing apparatus capable of reducing vibration applied to a light source and a detection unit and detecting a reflected wave from an information recording medium with high accuracy.

According to the eighth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to provide an optical recording / reproducing apparatus capable of reducing crosstalk of signals and detecting a reflected wave from an information recording medium with high accuracy. Further, the degree of freedom in selecting the material of the information recording medium can be increased. Further, the invention described in claim 8 can provide an optical recording / reproducing apparatus which can perform high-speed recording and reproduction without the operation speed of the slider being limited by the driving speed of the light source and the detection unit. In addition, it is possible to provide an optical recording / reproducing apparatus which can reduce the vibration applied to the light source and the detecting unit and can detect the reflected wave from the information recording medium with high accuracy. Further, according to the invention of claim 8, since the waveguide portion becomes unnecessary, the number of parts can be reduced as compared with the above-mentioned invention. As described above, the inventions according to claims 1 to 8 of the present invention can provide an optical recording / reproducing apparatus capable of recording information at a high density and recording / reproducing at a high speed. Further, it is possible to provide an optical recording / reproducing apparatus capable of detecting a reflected wave from an information recording medium with high accuracy.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining an optical recording / reproducing apparatus of the present invention, which is common to each embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an optical recording / reproducing apparatus according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining an optical recording / reproducing apparatus according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining an optical recording / reproducing apparatus according to a third embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining a modification of the optical recording / reproducing apparatus shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Optical disk 2 Drive part 3 Slider 4 Suspension part 5 Fiber probe 5a, 5b End part 6 Spindle motor 7 Quarter wave plate 9, 9a, 9b Three-dimensional waveguide 10 Laser diode 11, 13, 14 Objective lens 15 Photodiode 90 Waveguide unit 100, 101, 102, 103 Optical system 200, 201, 202, 203 Optical head

Claims (8)

[Claims] An optical head comprises: a slider which is driven in a non-contact manner with respect to an optical disk type information recording medium; and an optical head fixed to the slider, wherein the optical head has a sharpened one. An information recording medium, comprising: a fiber probe having two ends, and a quarter-wave plate and another end provided with a waveguide portion for holding a polarization plane of light polarized by the quarter-wave plate. An optical recording / reproducing apparatus characterized in that the incident light is guided to the optical recording medium and the reflected light and the incident light reflected by the information recording medium are polarized so that their polarization states are orthogonal to each other. 2. The optical recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the waveguide section is constituted by a three-dimensional waveguide. 3. The waveguide section has two three-dimensional waveguides at least partially arranged adjacent to each other, and separates the traveling directions of the incident light and the reflected light by the three-dimensional waveguide. 2. The optical recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the optical recording / reproducing apparatus comprises a directional coupler. 4. The optical recording apparatus according to claim 3, wherein a polarization maintaining fiber is used for an introduction part for introducing the incident light and a derivation part for extracting the reflected light with respect to the waveguide part. Playback device. 5. The optical recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the waveguide section is constituted by a polarization maintaining fiber. 6. The fiber probe according to claim 1, further comprising a substantially circular opening at the sharpened end from which the incident light is emitted, wherein the diameter of the opening is 1 μm or less. An optical recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1. 7. A light source for emitting the incident light, a detecting unit for detecting the reflected light, and a driving unit for driving the slider, wherein the light source and the detecting unit are integrally formed. 2. The optical recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a light source and a detection unit integrally configured are fixed to a driving unit that drives the slider. 8. An information recording apparatus comprising: a slider for driving while being in non-contact with an optical disc type information recording medium; a driving section for driving the slider; and a fiber probe having one end sharpened. An optical head that guides incident light to a medium; a light source that emits the incident light; a detection unit that detects reflected light of the incident light reflected on the optical disc; and a polarization state of the incident light and the reflected light. The light source, the detection unit, and the quarter-wave plate are integrally formed and fixed to the driving unit, and the fiber is An optical recording / reproducing apparatus, wherein a probe is fixed to the slider.