A systematic investigation of the switching behavior and writeability characteristics of perpendicular magnetic oxide media was performed by varying the number of oxide layers as well as the anisotropy K u gradient in multilayered oxides. The media switching behavior highly depends on the magnetic volume of laterally exchange-coupled cap layer as well as the vertical exchange coupling between oxide and cap layers. The media switching field is significantly reduced with incoherent switching mode. The media writeability is further enhanced by employing the multilayered oxides whose anisotropy values vary. Higher K u graded oxide media exhibits improved resolution, sharper transition, and higher signal-to-noise ratio. An analytical 9-spin model is used to study the impact of anisotropy grading, intergranular and interlayer exchange coupling on writeability and noise performance. The 9-spin model is found to qualitatively agree with the experimental results. Both model and experiment indicate that optimal tuning of the media anisotropy and exchange to the head design is critical in attaining good recording performance.
Characterization of magnetic clustering and its effect on magnetic switching behavior and recording performance are investigated. Intergranular exchange coupling constant (Jc) of full-stack media is controlled over a wide range by applying a bias voltage (VB) to the bottom oxide layer only while the other conditions remain the same. With increasing VB up to 300 V, Hn considerably increases by 25% while Hc and Hs remain constant. Magnetic correlation length (Dn) extracted from major and minor loops is plotted with Jc values estimated from the ΔH(M,ΔM) method. Two distinct regions emerge, with lower Jc and larger Dn at VB ≤ 200 V, and with higher Jc and much larger Dn at VB > 200 V. These regions are consistent with the microstructures of biased CoCrPt-SiO2 films reported elsewhere. An increase in the intrinsic switching field distribution is also observed at VB > 200 V. Good correlation between KuV/kT and Dn2, and the increase in coherent switching behavior for media with higher VB, can be understood by the magnetic clustering effect. All the recording parameters of OW, resolution, low-frequency amplitude, magnetic core width, and SNR correlate well with Dn.
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