Effects of stabilizing layer and layer configuration on recording performance of laminated antiferromagnetically coupled media

The recording performance of laminated antiferromagnetically coupled (LAC) media was characterized to study the effect of stabilizing layer thickness and layer configuration. A smaller pulse width, PW50, was achieved at thicker stabilizing layer from experimental and micromagnetic simulation results. Increasing the stabilizing layer thickness did not cause significant overwrite degradation for LAC media but the nonlinear transition shift was found to be worse. Experimental results showed that the recording performance of a new three-layer media with middle layer functions as the main layer gave higher SNR, lower noise properties, and better thermal stability although the overwrite properties may not be so good as compared to conventional single layer media and two layer LAC media. The signal decay rate of the three-layer LAC media has been reduced by 16% as compared to conventional two layer LAC media.