Optical and thermal analysis of the light-heat conversion process employing an antenna-based hybrid plasmonic waveguide for HAMR

TL;DR

This paper analyzes a hybrid plasmonic waveguide for heat-assisted magnetic recording, optimizing optical and thermal performance through numerical methods and design improvements like heat spreaders.

Contribution

It introduces an optimized waveguide design with enhanced optical and thermal efficiency for HAMR applications, including the use of heat spreaders to prevent deformation.

Findings

Achieved 8.5% optical efficiency in the waveguide design.

Identified key dimensions for maximizing optical throughput and thermal performance.

Proposed heat spreader to improve thermal stability without reducing optical efficiency.

Abstract

We investigate a tapered, hybrid plasmonic waveguide which has previously been proposed as an optically efficient near-field transducer (NFT), or component thereof, in several devices which aim to exploit nanofocused light. We numerically analyze how light is transported through the waveguide and ultimately focused via effective-mode coupling and taper optimization. Crucial dimensional parameters in this optimization process are identified that are not only necessary to achieve maximum optical throughput, but also optimum thermal performance with specific application towards heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR). It is shown that existing devices constructed on similar waveguides may benefit from a heat spreader to avoid deformation of the plasmonic element which we achieve with no cost to the optical efficiency. For HAMR, our design is able to surpass many industry requirements in regard to both optical and thermal efficiency using pertinent figure of merits like 8.5% optical efficiency.