LIGHT-MAGNETIC FIELD CONVERSION TYPE MAGNETO-OPTICAL DISK AND RECORDING AND REPRODUCING METHOD AND MAGNETO-OPTICAL RECORDING AND REPRODUCING DEVICE USING THIS DISK

摘要

PURPOSE:To overwrite information only with irradiation of light without using a magnetic head by forming a light-magnetic field conversion layer having photosensitive ions in the vicinity of a magnetic recording medium layer on a substrate. CONSTITUTION:A light-magnetic field conversion layer 2 having photosensitive ions is formed in the vicinity of a magnetic recording medium layer 3 on a substrate 1 and is locally irradiated with circularly polarized light to generate a local magnetic field, and the direction of the generated magnetic field is switched by the rotation direction of the electric vector of this circularly polarized light to locally invert the magnetization direction of the magnetic recording medium layer 3. Consequently, the light is converted into the magnetic field by the action of photosensitive ions and information is recoded and erased by this magnetic field. Thus, information is overwritten only with an optical head without using the magnetic head.