Thin Film Growth and Evaluation Method for Conventional Co-Cr Based Perpendicular Magnetic Recording Media: Problems and New Solutions

We proposed a novel method to evaluate the magnetic properties of the initial layer and the columnar structure separately for CoCr-based perpendicular recording media. We show that the thickness of the initial layer and the intrinsic magnetocrystalline anisotropy of columnar structure can be quantitatively evaluated using the plotted product of perpendicular anisotropy to magnetic film thickness versus magnetic film thickness ($K_{u{\bot}}^{ex{p.}}$ $\times$ d$_{mag.}$ vs. d$_{mag.}$ plot). Based on the analyses, it is found that: (1) compared with CoCrPtTa media, CoCrPtB media have relatively thin initial layer, and have fine grains with homogeneous columnar structure with c-plane crystallographic orientation; (2) CoCrPtB media can be grown epitaxially on Ru or CoCr/C intermediate layer, and as the result, the magnetic properties of the media within thin thickness region of d$_{mag.}$ $\leq$ 20 nm is significantly improved; (3) the key issue of material investigation for CoCr-based perpendicular recording media will be focused on how to fabricate c-plane-oriented columnar grains well isolated with nonmagnetic substance in epitaxial-growth media, while maintaining the thermal stability of the media.