Determining the Anisotropy of Bit-Patterned Media for Optimal Performance

In conventional recording theory, the transition width should be minimized by writing the transition at the location of the maximum head-field gradient, and this should be achieved by setting the coercivity equal to the head field at the location of the maximum head-field gradient (taking appropriate account of the variation of coercivity with field angle). A natural assumption in bit-patterned media is that the system could be optimized by setting the island switching field in a similar manner. In this paper, we investigate what strategy of optimization gives the minimum error rate or the maximum write-window.