The present disclosure is related to a polynomial spiral waveguide that facilitates coupling light to a near-field transducer at an oblique angle. In one embodiment, a recording head includes a near-field transducer located an oblique angle to a cross-track line at an intersection of a media-facing surface and a substrate-parallel plane of the recording head. The near-field transducer includes an enlarged portion and a peg extending from the enlarged portion towards the media-facing surface. The peg is at a normal angle to the cross-track line. An input waveguide of the recording head receives energy from an energy source along the substrate parallel plane, and an output waveguide delivers the energy to near-field transducer at the oblique angle. The output waveguide is oriented at the oblique angle to the cross track line. A bent waveguide with a polynomial spiral shape joins the input waveguide and the output waveguide.
These and other features and aspects of various embodiments may be understood in view of the following detailed discussion and accompanying drawings.
In the following diagrams, the same reference numbers may be used to identify similar/same/analogous components in multiple figures. The figures are not necessarily to scale.
The present disclosure is generally related to heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR), also referred to as energy-assisted magnetic recording (EAMR), thermally-assisted recording (TAR), thermally-assisted magnetic recording (TAMR), etc. In a HAMR device, information bits are recorded in a storage layer at elevated temperatures. The heated area (e.g., hot spot) in the storage layer determines the data bit dimension. One way to achieve a tiny, confined hot spot is to use an optical near-field transducer (NFT), such as a plasmonic optical antenna or an aperture, integrated in an optical waveguide of high contrast in the index of refraction between the waveguide core and its claddings. A magnetic pole is placed in close proximity (e.g., 20-50 nm) to the NFT at the media-facing surface.
One way to launch light into the optical waveguide on a magnetic slider is to bond a light source on a top surface of the slider. Light exiting from a light source, for instance, an edge-emitting laser diode, is coupled into a slider-integrated optical waveguide by an input coupler. Light is delivered to a near-field transducer of the slider by a solid immersion mirror or by a channel waveguide. To achieve better product yields, a channel waveguide that supports only a single transverse mode may be used for light delivery. A laser diode with transverse electric (TE) mode may be selected as a light source for use with this type of waveguide. Transverse electric mode lasers are more commonly available and therefore provide greater choice in laser emission wavelength than that of a transverse magnetic (TM) mode laser.
Part of the light delivered by the channel waveguide the recording media will reflect from the media and return into the light source. The reflected light can cause laser instability, such as longitudinal mode hopping. In order to reduce these reflections, a largely tilted channel waveguide with fundamental transverse electric (TE00)) mode for light delivery to prevent optical feedback and thereby increase laser stability. The NFT footprint is much smaller than that for the waveguide light delivery with the first higher-order mode, TE10 mode, which can thereby reduce peg recess of the NFT. A light path design is described below that has low propagation loss, low reflection, and reduced sensitivity to waveguide sidewall roughness.
In reference to
The laser diode 102 delivers light to a region proximate a HAMR read/write transducer 106, which is located near the media-facing surface 108. The energy is used to heat the recording media as it passes by the read/write transducer 106. Optical coupling components, such as a waveguide system 110, are formed integrally within the slider body 101 (near a trailing edge surface 104 in this example) and function as an optical path that delivers energy from the laser diode 102 to the recording media via a near-field transducer 112. The near-field transducer 112 is located near the read/write transducer 106 and causes heating of the media during recording operations. The near-field transducer 112 may be made from plasmonic materials such as gold, silver, copper, rhodium, platinum, iridium, etc.
The laser diode 102 in this example may be configured as either an edge-emitting laser or surface-emitting laser. Generally, the edge-emitting laser, also called in-plane laser, emits light along the wafer surface of a semiconductor chip and a surface emitting laser emits light in a direction perpendicular to a semiconductor wafer surface. An edge-emitting laser may be mounted on the top surface 103 of the slider body 101 (e.g., in a pocket or cavity) such that the light is emitted in a direction perpendicular to the media-facing surface (along the z-direction in this view).
While the example in
In
The waveguide system 110 includes a core layer 210 surrounded by cladding layers 212, 214. The core layer 210 may be made from dielectric of high index of refraction, for instance, Ta2O5 (tantalum oxide), TiO2 (titanium oxide), Nb2O5 (niobium oxide), Si3N4 (silicon nitride), SiC (silicon carbon), Y2O3 (yttrium oxide), ZnSe (zinc selenide), ZnS (zinc sulfide), ZnTe (zinc telluride), Ba4Ti3O12 (barium titanate), GaP (gallium phosphide), CuO2 (copper oxide), and Si (silicon), etc. The cladding layers 212, 214 may each be formed of a dielectric material having a refractive index lower than the core, such as Al2O3 (aluminum oxide), SiO, SiO2 (silica), SiOxNy (silicon oxynitride), and AlN (aluminum nitride). This arrangement of materials facilitates efficient propagation of light through the waveguide system 110. The waveguide system 110 may include any combination of geometric features described in subsequent figures.
A first end of the core 210 (not shown) extends along the light propagation direction (z-direction) where it is directly or indirectly coupled to a light/energy source. For example, a laser diode may have an output facet that is coupled face-to-face with an end of the waveguide core 210. In other configurations, optical components such as lenses, mirrors, collimators, mode converters, etc., may be coupled between the waveguide core 210 and the light/energy source. In either case, the energy 204 coupled into the first end of the waveguide core 210 propagates to a second end 210a that is proximate the near-field transducer.
In
The energy source 302 launches light into a tapered waveguide input coupler 314 (also referred to as an “input waveguide”) of the waveguide system. The energy source 302 is polarized along the x-direction, exciting a fundamental transverse electric mode (TE00)) in the waveguide input coupler 314, which is coupled to a bent waveguide 315 and an output waveguide 316. The input coupler 314 tapers from a smaller cross track width proximate the energy source 302 to a wider cross track width proximate the bent waveguide 315. The waveguide core dimension of input and output waveguides 314-316 may be chosen to support single mode propagation.
As seen in
Referring again to
The input waveguide 314 is nearly normal to the top surface 308, and light exiting from the light source 302 is nearly normal to this surface for coupling efficiency from the energy source 302 to the waveguide 314. The output waveguide 316 near the media-facing surface is tilted from the media-facing surface normal at a large angle θf to suppress the return light reflected from the medium 312 into the light source 302, which may cause instability, such as laser mode hopping.
The bent waveguide 315 connects the input and output waveguides 314, 316 and has high transmission with low reflection. The waveguide geometry results in an offset 322 between the laser output and the NFT 318. An example core and cladding configuration of the bent waveguide 315 is shown in the cross-section of
There are two physical loss mechanisms considered for this waveguide system 300: transition loss and pure bending loss. Transition loss occurs at a discontinuity between two waveguide sections of different curvatures, for instance, between a straight and a bent section, due to mode field mismatch and lateral offset in the peak field, causing radiation loss and excitations of other order modes. The contour plots in
Pure bending loss is a result of radiation loss due to phase wave-front deformation. The graphs in
Transition loss at a discrete discontinuity: αT=1−overlap. As expected, smaller bend radius results in larger bending and transition losses. Wider waveguides exhibit lower bending loss. This trend is not that clear for the transition loss. For the waveguide geometry in
There is another waveguide loss caused by imperfect fabrication, namely the waveguide sidewall roughness. The roughness-induced radiation loss is dependent on the field amplitude at the waveguide sidewalls, which prefers wider waveguide for better mode confinement. But wider waveguide supports multi-modes and inter-mode coupling due to bending will cause power loss. As such, suppressing inter-mode coupling will allow a wide waveguide bend to mitigate roughness-induced radiation loss.
Another aspect is the reflection at the discontinuity between two waveguide sections. Reflection back to the laser cavity will cause mode hopping, resulting in fluctuations and jump in laser output power. One method to minimize transition loss is lateral shift between two waveguide sections. From
Transition loss could be understood as the coupling to other propagating modes, leaky modes, and radiation modes. Considering the coupling from mode i of segment 0 to mode j of the connected segment 1. The amplitude coupling coefficient cij due to the change in waveguide structure from segment 0 to 1 can be written as shown in Equation [1] below, where k0 denotes the wave number in free space (k0=2π/λ0); Δ∈r stands for the change in the relative permittivity between the two segments; Ei0 represents the spatial field profile of mode i of segment 0 and E*j1 the complex conjugate of the mode field of mode j of segment 1; βi0 is the propagation constant of mode i of segment 0; and βj1 is that of mode j of segment 1.
The spatial field profile has been normalized to have unit power. It is seen that inter-mode coupling mainly occurs between two neighboring modes. Let ai (aj) be the field amplitude in mode i (mode j), the change in the mode amplitude (Δai, Δaj) is written as in Equation [2] below, and in continuous form in Equations [3a]-[3c].
Δaj=cijai,Δai=−cijaj [2]
If a mode is well confined to waveguide core, a bent waveguide can be approximated with a straight waveguide with a permittivity of
Here κ denotes the curvature, κ=1/R. The coupling coefficient cij of Equation [3c] becomes Equation [4] below. To the second order in the coupling, assuming aj(0)=0, the coupling from mode i to j, can be obtained as shown in Equation [5]. If the coupling coefficient cij and Δβij do not change with z, the power loss from mode i to j is shown in Equation [6].
It is interesting to see that if mode j is a propagating mode, the power in mode i will be oscillating. If the waveguide supports only a single mode, however, the power in mode i will loss to radiation modes. Based on Equations [3c] and [6], we may approximate the change in transition loss αT as shown in Equation [7] below. Combining the pure bending and transition loss, we obtain the total loss along a bend path as shown in Equation [8], where s denotes the arc length along the path contour and s1 is the total arc length.
To verify the transition loss model presented in Equation [7], the transition loss due to the change in the radius of curvature, ΔR, versus R is computed. According to Equations [1] and [2], the transition loss is approximately proportional to
The graph in
which is about 50% off from the simplified model, n=2.
The bend path optimization involves minimizing the loss Γ with constraint in endpoints as shown in Equation [9] below. Adding the Lagrange multipliers (λ1, λ2), bend path optimization involves minimizing the functional Γ as shown in Equation [10]. According to the calculus of variation, Equation [11] is obtained.
It is difficult to find the solution of Equation [11] with the end-point constraints given in Equation [9], and so an approximate solution is sought. Generally, a straight path connecting the two end-points will minimize pure bending loss. However, this path will cause reflection at the discontinuity between two waveguide sections. Reflection back to the laser cavity will cause mode hopping, resulting in fluctuations and jumps in laser output power. As such, the goal is to minimize transition loss in the curved path.
Without endpoint constraint, the minimization in the transition loss means
which leads to Euler spiral or clothoid spiral, κ(s)=a+bs. With endpoint constraints, one approximate path is polynomial spiral shown in Equation [12] below.
κ(s)=a+bs+cs2+ds3 [12]
The four parameters (a, b, c, d) can be uniquely determined by requiring continuity in tangent angle and curvature at the two endpoints and constraint in endpoint coordinates. The input and output waveguide are straight. Curvature continuity at the start point leads to a=0 and curvature continuity at the end point leads to b=−(c s1+d s12). The tangent angle is θ(s)=θ0+½b s2+⅓c s3+¼d s4 and tangent angle continuity at the end point results in
Combine these, (b, c) can be expressed in terms of (d, s1) as shown in Equations [13a]-[13b] below. The two parameters (d, s1) are determined by the endpoint constraint, Equation [9], which can be rewritten as in Equation [14].
The procedure to find the two parameters (d, s1) from Equation [14] involves three steps for numerical integration. For the first step, the integral in Eq. [14] is rewritten as shown in Equations [15a]-[15g] below.
k
3=(s1−s0)4d/4 [15g]
Second, at a given total arc length s1, s1>s1min=√{square root over ((zf−z0)2+(xf−x0)2)}, the corresponding d with the constraint in (xf−x0) is found as in Equation [16] below. To find the root, d, of Equation [16], the integration in Equation [14] is approximated based on Equation [15a],
thereby obtaining d as shown in Expression [17] below. Finding the root further involves using a Taylor expansion to the 6th order, to approximate Equation [15b] as shown in Expression [18] below. With the initial guess from Equation [17], the d value can be found from Equation [16] with the approximation of Equation [18] by a root-finding algorithm, for instance, the Muller's method. Finally, to find the accurate d, Equation [16] is solved without approximation in the integration, based on the approximate d value obtained from the previous estimates.
The third step in finding the two parameters (d, s1) from Equation [14] is to find the s1 range [s10, s11] such that the constraint in (zf−z0) is bracketed by gradually increasing s1 value from s1min, as shown in Equations [19a]-[19c] below. A bisection root-finding algorithm can be used to find s1 from Equation [19c].
F(s1=s10)×F(s1=s11)≦0 [19b]
F(s1)=0 [19c]
Following the three steps described above, the two parameters (d, s1) are determined, and therefore, the spiral path that connects the two end-points is found. The graphs in
zf=H−Lend cos(θf) [20a]
xf=offset−Lend sin(θf) [20b]
In one example, the total height of the magnetic slider is 180 μm. In such a case, 100 μm will be used for the waveguide input coupler, so the height of the bent waveguide plus output height H=80 μm (see H in
To demonstrate the performance of using a polynomial spiral for connection, a path with Euler (clothoid) spiral connection is also calculated. At offset<40 μm, at least three clothoid curves will be needed to connect the input to output waveguide. The graphs in
The width of the curved waveguide may vary between where it couples to the input and output waveguides. In such a case, the inner and outer contour of the bent waveguide can be obtained in two ways, (1) both inner and outer contour are independently generated with a polynomial spiral or (2) the middle line of the waveguide is generated using a polynomial spiral while the inner and outer contour are generated based on the local waveguide width, Wloc. The normal distance from inner contour to the middle line, Wim, might differ from that between the outer contour and the middle line, Wom, as shown in the graph of
Since the path is designed to minimize inter-mode coupling, a bent waveguide with multi-mode sections could be used to mitigate the impact of sidewall roughness due to imperfect fabrication. One simple model in local core width is its linear dependence on local curvature, CR, as shown in Equations [21a] and [21b] below, where Wmax (≧W0) is the core width at the location of maximum curvature, CRmax. To mitigate the phase wave-front deformation, which results in radiation loss and inter-modal coupling, the waveguide could use core widths as shown in Equations [22a]-[22b]. In practice, the optimal Wmax value can be determined experimentally
W
1
=W
0 [21b]
In
Light propagates through the waveguide system 1600 and excites a plasmonic NFT 1618. The NFT 1618 is located an oblique angle to the x-axis and includes an enlarged portion and a peg extending therefrom normal to the media-facing surface 1710. The input waveguide 1614 is nearly normal to the top surface 1608, and light exiting from the light source 1602 is nearly normal to this surface for coupling efficiency from the energy source 1602 to the input waveguide 1614. The output waveguide 1616 near the media-facing surface is tilted from the media-facing surface 1610 normal at the oblique angle to suppress the return light reflected from the medium into the light source 1602.
In this embodiment, there is a small or zero offset between the output of the energy source 1602 and the NFT 1618. This is achieved by an s-shaped bend in the bent waveguide 1615. This embodiment may include materials and features described for other embodiments, including an assistant layer on a substrate-parallel side of the input waveguide 1614, polynomial spirals in the bent waveguide 1615, varying width in the bent waveguide 1615, etc. Also seen in this embodiment are two or more light blockers 1620 on either side of the input waveguide 1614 and/or bent waveguide 1615. The light blockers could be formed as gratings and/or from reflective metals, such Au, Cu, Al and/or from partially reflective and partially absorptive materials, such as NiFe and NiFeCo. Similar light blockers may be used in other embodiments described herein, e.g., as shown in
A bolometer 1622 is also shown in
In
The energy source 1702 launches light into the input waveguide 1714, which is coupled to a bent waveguide 1715 and output waveguide 1716. The input coupler 1714 tapers from a smaller cross track width proximate the energy source 1702 to a wider cross track width proximate the bent waveguide 1715. The input coupler 1714 may extend parallel to a top surface 1706 and a media-facing surface 1710. Light propagates through the waveguide system 1700 and excites a plasmonic NFT 1718 located an oblique angle to the x-axis. The NFT includes an enlarged portion and a peg extending therefrom normal to the media-facing surface 1710. The output waveguide 1716 near the media-facing surface 1710 is tilted from the media-facing surface normal at the oblique angle to suppress the return light reflected from the recording medium into the light source 1702.
In this embodiment, may be a significant or zero offset between the output of the energy source 1702 and the NFT 1718. This embodiment may include materials and features described for other embodiments, including an assistant layer on a substrate-parallel side of the input waveguide 1714, polynomial spirals in the bent waveguide 1715, varying width in the bent waveguide 1715, etc.
While the above examples have shown single mode, TEN) input and output waveguides, the above embodiments may also be used for other waveguide modes in the input and/or output modes. For example, some NFTs may use a fundamental transverse magnetic mode (TM00) for near-field transducer excitation. A TM00 may be used for NFTs that have, for example, has a triangular shape, called a plasmonic generator. The embodiments above may also be used for a higher order TE mode, for instance, a first higher-order TE10 mode. In such a case, a mode converter may be used to convert a fundamental mode to a higher-order TE or TM mode. In some configurations, the bent waveguide may be configured to perform this mode conversion.
In
Unless otherwise indicated, all numbers expressing feature sizes, amounts, and physical properties used in the specification and claims are to be understood as being modified in all instances by the term “about.” Accordingly, unless indicated to the contrary, the numerical parameters set forth in the foregoing specification and attached claims are approximations that can vary depending upon the desired properties sought to be obtained by those skilled in the art utilizing the teachings disclosed herein. The use of numerical ranges by endpoints includes all numbers within that range (e.g. 1 to 5 includes 1, 1.5, 2, 2.75, 3, 3.80, 4, and 5) and any range within that range.
The foregoing description of the example embodiments has been presented for the purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the inventive concepts to the precise form disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching. Any or all features of the disclosed embodiments can be applied individually or in any combination are not meant to be limiting, but purely illustrative. It is intended that the scope be limited not with this detailed description, but rather determined by the claims appended hereto.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
2914741 | Unger | Nov 1959 | A |
5200939 | Nishiwaki et al. | Apr 1993 | A |
6388840 | Ohwe | May 2002 | B1 |
8670294 | Shi | Mar 2014 | B1 |
8670295 | Hu | Mar 2014 | B1 |
8861124 | Finot | Oct 2014 | B1 |
9251819 | Peng | Feb 2016 | B2 |
9336814 | Shi | May 2016 | B1 |
20080204916 | Matsumoto | Aug 2008 | A1 |
20100238580 | Shimazawa | Sep 2010 | A1 |
20110122737 | Shimazawa | May 2011 | A1 |
20110181979 | Jin | Jul 2011 | A1 |
20130223196 | Gao | Aug 2013 | A1 |
20140036646 | Peng | Feb 2014 | A1 |
20140241137 | Jin et al. | Aug 2014 | A1 |
20140254336 | Jandric | Sep 2014 | A1 |
20140325827 | Lipson et al. | Nov 2014 | A1 |
20150003218 | Peng | Jan 2015 | A1 |
20150109822 | Ouderkirk | Apr 2015 | A1 |
20150318005 | Kim | Nov 2015 | A1 |
20150340050 | Wessel | Nov 2015 | A1 |
20160125901 | Lee | May 2016 | A1 |
20160133286 | Lee | May 2016 | A1 |
20160300589 | Chen | Oct 2016 | A1 |
20160351209 | Chen | Dec 2016 | A1 |
20160351210 | Blaber | Dec 2016 | A1 |
20160351211 | Blaber | Dec 2016 | A1 |
20160351214 | Kautzky | Dec 2016 | A1 |
20160351221 | Blaber | Dec 2016 | A1 |
20160351222 | Blaber | Dec 2016 | A1 |
Entry |
---|
Aug. 4, 2016, File History for U.S. Appl. No. 14/928,611. |