Issues in heat-assisted perpendicular recording

Heat- or thermally assisted magnetic recording employing perpendicular media is considered. The technological and physical principles treated are also applicable to longitudinal recording. Three issues are treated: Optical heating of a small volume of the medium on the length scale of a recorded bit at areal densities beyond 1 Tb/in/sup 2/, dissipation of waste heat generated on an integrated flying slider, and optimization of the recording process.