L10 FePtX-Y media for heat-assisted magnetic recording

Highly chemically ordered L1(0) FePtX-Y nano-granular films with high perpendicular magnetic anisotropy are key media approaches for future heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR). They are sputtered at elevated temperature on glass disks coated with adhesion, heat sink, and texturing layers. Adding X=Ag reduces the required deposition temperature and X=Cu lowers the Curie temperature. Current seed layers are NiTa for adhesion and heat sink and well-oriented MgO (002) layers for highly textured FePtX(002) grains surrounded by Y=carbon and/or other segregants. Magnetic anisotropies larger than 4.5x10(7)ergcm(-3) and coercivities beyond 5Tesla have been achieved. The combination of thermal conductivity and Curie temperature determines the required laser power during recording. Key goals are to optimize media, heads, head-disk-spacing, and read-back channels to extend the areal density to 1.5-5Tbin(-2). [GRAPHICS] Head and media in heat-assisted magnetic recording(1). LD, laser diode; TFC, thermal fluctuation control; NFT, near field transducer. (1)Lidu Huang et al., HAMR Thermal Modeling Including Media Hot Spot, APMRC 2012. (C) 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim