or the like may also be employed to obtain the effects of the present invention in the third and fourth examples gold is used for the medium surface for exciting the surface plasmon but other materials such as aluminum and silver may also be used to obtain the effects of the present invention as long as the real part of the complex dielectric constant is negative in the third and fourth examples the optical recording data pit has a concave portion and a convex portion i e has binary digits of 34 0 34 and 34 1 34 however even if there are several levels in pit depth and more than two values are recorded in the out of phase direction the effects of the present invention can be obtained in the third and fourth examples the photodiode functioning as the reflected light detection section detects the reflected light passing through the receiving light lens reflected light polarizing prism and the receiver lens however the effects of the present invention can be obtained even if the photodiode may be arranged on the reflective surface of the prism so as to directly detect the reflected light as is described above according to the third and fourth examples optical recording data is stored as a pit on a disk the surface of the disk is made of the magnetic layer and the recording and reproducing head is composed of the magnetic head and the optical head with such a configuration.