Information media and method and apparatus for writing and reproducing information using the same

Abstract

Provided are a method and an apparatus for reproducing information using a semiconductor probe. The apparatus comprises a storage media including a ferroelectric recording layer in which information is stored by arranging the polarization direction of polarization domains of the ferroelectric recording layer and a physical recording layer which is formed on the ferroelectric recording layer and on which information is written by forming pits in the physical recoding layer, a semiconductor probe generating a composite signal including an electric field signal generated by an electric field variation of the ferroelectric recording layer of the storage media and a thermal signal generated by a temperature variation generated due to a variation in the shape of the physical recording layer, a signal detector detecting the composite signal from the semiconductor probe, and a demodulator demodulating the composite signal from the signal detector and extracting the electric field signal and the thermal signal from the composite signal. A signal generated by a field variation and a signal generated by a thermal variation are separated from each other by modulation and an effective information signal is detected such that a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is improved and the information signal can be stably reproduced even with the presence of a thermal noise.

Description

Technical Field [0001] The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for reproducing information using a field effect semiconductor probe, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for reproducing information in which a thermal signal generated by a surface structure of a medium and an information signal generated by a change in an electric field of the medium can be separated from each other. Background Art [0002] As the demand for small-sized products such as portable communication terminals and electronic notebooks increases, highly integrated micro non-volatile recording media are increasingly needed. It is not easy to reduce the size of existing hard disks and highly integrate flash memory at low cost. Therefore, information storage media and methods using scanning probes have been studied as possible alternatives. [0003] Scanning probes are used in various types of scanning probe microscopes (SPM). For example, scanning probes are used in scanning t...