Design of optical flying head for magneto-optical recording

In this paper, an optimum design of optical flying head (OFH) for magneto-optical recording is presented. To obtain both the enhanced static and dynamic characteristics of the OFH, the objective function is determined to minimize the variation of the flying height at the center of the lens from the target height, 50 nm, over the entire recording band. In addition, to decrease the sensitivity to external disturbances, all the air-bearing stiffnesses are constrained to keep the increase above 10% in comparison with the original ones. The dynamic characteristics of the impulse velocity and the disk waviness are also investigated for comparison. It is believed that the optimal OFH has more stable flying performance than the original one while keeping the desired flying attitude.