The era of big data has necessitated the use of ultra-high density optical storage devices. Super-resolution near-field structure （super-RENS）, which has successfully surpassed the fundamental optical diffraction li...The era of big data has necessitated the use of ultra-high density optical storage devices. Super-resolution near-field structure （super-RENS）, which has successfully surpassed the fundamental optical diffraction limit, is one of the promising next generation high-density optical storage technologies. This technology combines the traditional super-resolution optical disk with a near-field structure, and has the advantages of structural simplicity, strong practicability, and, more importantly, compatibility with the current optical storage pickup. The mask layer in super-RENS functions as the key to realizing superresolution. Development of suitable materials and stack designs has greatly been improved in the last decade. This paper described several types of super-RENS, such as aperture-type, light scattering center-type, bubble-type, and other types （e.g., WOx and ZnO）, particularly the newly proposed super-RENS technology and research achievements. The paper also reviews the applications of super-RENS in high-density optical data storage in recent years. After analyzing and comparing various types of super-RENS technology, the paper proposes the aperturetype based on the mechanism of nonlinear optics as the most suitable candidate for practical applications in the near future.展开更多
基金This work was partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China （Grant Nos. 61137002, 61178059 and 51172253）.
文摘The era of big data has necessitated the use of ultra-high density optical storage devices. Super-resolution near-field structure （super-RENS）, which has successfully surpassed the fundamental optical diffraction limit, is one of the promising next generation high-density optical storage technologies. This technology combines the traditional super-resolution optical disk with a near-field structure, and has the advantages of structural simplicity, strong practicability, and, more importantly, compatibility with the current optical storage pickup. The mask layer in super-RENS functions as the key to realizing superresolution. Development of suitable materials and stack designs has greatly been improved in the last decade. This paper described several types of super-RENS, such as aperture-type, light scattering center-type, bubble-type, and other types （e.g., WOx and ZnO）, particularly the newly proposed super-RENS technology and research achievements. The paper also reviews the applications of super-RENS in high-density optical data storage in recent years. After analyzing and comparing various types of super-RENS technology, the paper proposes the aperturetype based on the mechanism of nonlinear optics as the most suitable candidate for practical applications in the near future.
