Studies of the perpendicular magnetization mode in Co-Cr sputtered films

The extremely high resolution properties in a perpendicular magnetic recording system were studied with a recently developed Co-Cr film medium. Bitter technique was used to observe magnetization distribution in the medium, and the transition of magnetization was directly observed on the top and the bottom surfaces of the film. It was proved that an ideal perpendicular magnetization mode, having a very narrow transition width, takes place even in a high recording density over 40 kBPI. From the angular variation of Hcand the micro-structure of the Co-Cr film, it was concluded that the high recording resolution of the film results from the fine columnar particles which show the rotational mechanism of magnetization reversal accompanied by a perpendicular magnetocrystalline anisotropy. The Co-Cr film was also found to be superior in perpendicular anisotropy to any other Co-M films studied here in.