EFFECTS OF HIGH-NUMERICAL-APERTURE FOCUSING ON THE STATE OF POLARIZATION IN OPTICAL AND MAGNETOOPTIC DATA-STORAGE SYSTEMS

Using vector diffraction theory and an exact method for computing reflection coefficients for multilayer structures, we analyze the effects of high-numerical-aperture focusing on the state of polarization in optical data storage systems. The focused incident beam is decomposed into a spectrum of plane waves, and the reflected beam is obtained by the superposition of these plane waves after they are independently reflected from the multilayer. Plots of polarization rotation angle and ellipticity for several disk structures are presented.