Composition and underlayer effects on media noise and off-track error rate performance of CoCrPtTa sputtered films on alternative substrates

Author

Gao, Chuan ; Lee, Sang Y. ; Malmhäll, Roger ; Rauch, Gary C.

Author_Institution

Seagate Recording Media, Fremont, CA, USA

Volume

32

Issue

5

fYear

1996

fDate

9/1/1996 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

3569

Lastpage

3571

Abstract

Signal-to-media-noise-ratio (SILTR) and off-track-capability (OTC) were studied as a function of alloy composition and underlayer structure for alternative substrate recording media having coercivity of 2200 Oe and remanence of 1.0 memu/cm². Higher Cr content up to 15 at% and Ta content up to 6% gave better SNR and OTC performance in CoCrPtTa alloys. Replacement of Cr with CrV as buffer/underlayer significantly improved SNR and OTC. The mechanism is the effective reduction of grain size and narrowing of grain size distribution while keeping the grain crystallographic structure and orientation unchanged from that using Cr underlayer. High performance discs on glass-ceramic substrates with enhanced SNR and OTC were made by optimizing buffer/underlayer and CoCrPtTa alloy composition

Keywords

chromium alloys; cobalt alloys; magnetic disc storage; magnetic recording noise; magnetic thin films; platinum alloys; sputtered coatings; substrates; tantalum alloys; CoCrPtTa; CoCrPtTa sputtered film; OTC; SILTR; SNR; alloy composition; buffer; coercivity; crystallographic structure; disc; glass-ceramic substrate; grain size; magnetic recording; off-track error rate; off-track-capability; orientation; remanence; signal-to-media-noise-ratio; underlayer structure; Atomic force microscopy; Chromium alloys; Coercive force; Error analysis; Grain size; Magnetic films; Magnetic heads; Magnetic recording; Platinum alloys; Substrates;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.538692

Filename

538692