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In near-field optical recording, the combination of a triangular aperture and a polarized illuminating light is thought to be one of the most promising breakthroughs for improving both spatial resolution and signal-to-noise ratio. In light of this, we have already fabricated a triangular-aperture mounted optical head slider and demonstrated its superior performance while clarifying the influence of the polarization direction on the spatial resolution in the circumferential direction. When the polarization direction was perpendicular to the bottom side (which is parallel to the slider trailing edge) of the aperture, the highest spatial resolution and signal contrast were obtained, in spite of the usage of a fairly large aperture, indicating the presence of clear readout signal waveforms corresponding down to 100 nm line-and-space (L/S) patterns. In this study, we tried to experimentally clarify the influence of the polarization direction of the illuminating light on an aperture's field spread in the radial direction. In order to concretely evaluate the field spread, we prepared 1-mm-long linearly arranged (in the circumferential direction) L/S patterns on a metal-layered medium, and a piezo-electric actuator combined positioner. Intersecting the aperture at two portions of the tracks, directly acquired signal waveforms could be successfully transformed into the waveforms that would be obtained if the aperture had crossed the track at right angles. The field spreads in the radial direction were estimated to be approximately 250 nm when the polarization direction was perpendicular to the bottom side. In contrast, when the polarization direction was 45 degrees, the stationary field spread in the radial direction was estimated to be approximately 350 - 370 nm. It could be confirmed experimentally that both the highest spatial resolution in the circumferential direction and the smallest field spread in the radial direction were realized with the combination of the triangular aperture and the illuminating polarized light whose direction was perpendicular to the bottom side. Based on these results, the signal-to-noise ratio will be evaluated and discussed in the future with respect to the above-mentioned optimum aperture structure and conditions.

A perturbative correction to the method of configuration interaction with single substitutions (CIS) is presented. This CIS(D) correction approximately introduces the effect of double substitutions which are absent in CIS excited states. CIS(D) is a second-order perturbation expansion of the coupled-cluster excited state method, restricted to single and double substitutions, in a series in which CIS is zeroth order, and the first-order correction vanishes. CIS (D) excitation energies are size consistent and the calculational complexity scales with the fifth power of molecular size, akin to second-order Moller-Plesset theory for the ground state. Calculations on singlet excited states of ethylene, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, butadiene and benzene show that CIS (D) is a uniform improvement over CIS. CIS(D) appears to be a promising method for examining excited states of large molecules, where more accurate methods are not feasible.