Co-7% Ir Soft Magnetic Intermediate Layer for Perpendicular Media

Author

Park, Soyoung ; Laughlin, David E. ; Zhu, Jian-Gang

Author_Institution

Data Storage Syst. Center, Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Volume

46

Issue

6

fYear

2010

fDate

6/1/2010 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

2278

Lastpage

2281

Abstract

The current perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) media uses a non-magnetic dual Ru intermediate layer. Replacing the bottom Ru layer with a Co-7at% Ir soft magnetic crystalline interlayer is expected to enhance both the magnetic field strength and gradient. Fabrication processing parameters were varied to develop the CoIr layer with desired properties (soft magnetic properties, texture, and dome morphology) to be utilized in practical PMR media design. First, the oxide was added to create a magnetically grain-to-grain isolated structure and the well segregated microstructure was obtained. Secondly, CoIr without the oxide was deposited on amorphous Ta and confirmed to have the hcp (00.2) texture and 5 nm Ru on top develops the hcp (00.2) texture epitaxially. The recording layer properties were not deteriorated with the replacement of Ru bottom layer with CoIr. The feasibility of CoIr application in the current PMR media will be discussed based on the experimental results.

Keywords

cobalt alloys; crystal microstructure; crystal morphology; iridium alloys; magnetic thin films; perpendicular magnetic recording; soft magnetic materials; Co-Ir soft magnetic intermediate layer; CoIr; bottom Ru layer; dome morphology; fabrication processing parameters; magnetic field gradient; magnetic field strength; magnetically grain-to-grain isolated structure; microstructure; nonmagnetic dual Ru intermediate layer; perpendicular magnetic recording media; soft magnetic properties; texture; Amorphous magnetic materials; Amorphous materials; Crystallization; Fabrication; Magnetic fields; Magnetic properties; Microstructure; Morphology; Perpendicular magnetic recording; Soft magnetic materials; CoIr; perpendicular thin film media; soft magnetic intermediate layer;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TMAG.2010.2043231

Filename

5467572