IUVSTA 15th International Vacuum Congress (IVC-15), AVS 48th International Symposium (AVS-48), 11th International Conference on Solid Surfaces (ICSS-11)
    Magnetic Recording Topical Conference Wednesday Sessions
       Session MR+AS+SE-WeA

Invited Paper MR+AS+SE-WeA5
Antiferromagnetically-Coupled Magnetic Media Layers for Thermally-Stable High-Density Recording

Wednesday, October 31, 2001, 3:20 pm, Room 110

Session: Magnetic Recording: Heads & Media
Presenter: E.E. Fullerton, IBM Almaden Research Center
Authors: E.E. Fullerton, IBM Almaden Research Center
D.T. Margulies, IBM Almaden Research Center
M. Schabes, IBM Almaden Research Center
M.F. Doerner, IBM Storage Technology Division
Correspondent: Click to Email
The combination of signal-to-noise requirements, write field limitations, and thermal activation of small particles is thought to limit the potential areal density of longitudinal recording media and is commonly referred to as the 'superparamagnetic limit'. Recording media composed of antiferromagnetically coupled (AFC) magnetic recording layers is a promising approach to extend areal densities of longitudinal media beyond these perceived limits [@footnote 1@,@footnote 2@]. The recording medium is made up of two ferromagnetic recording layer separated by a nonmagnetic layer whose thickness is tuned to couple the layers antiferromagnetically. For such a structure, the effective areal moment density (Mrt) of the composite structure is given by the difference between the ferromagnetic layers allowing the effective magnetic thickness to scale independently of the physical thickness of the media. This allows AFC media to maintain thermal stability even for low Mrt values. Experimental realization of this concept using CoPtCrB alloy layers that demonstrates thermally stable low-Mrt media suitable for high-density recording will be discussed. @FootnoteText@ @footnote 1@ E. E. Fullerton et al, Appl. Phys. Lett. 77, 3806 (2000). @footnote 2@ E. N. Abarra et al, Appl. Phys. Lett. 77, 2581 (2000).