Read/Write and Thermal Properties of a Coupled Granular /Continuous Medium with a Soft Capping Layer

Abstract

Recently, magnetic recording has faced a trilemma, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), thermal stability, and writability in order to achieve recording densities of over 1 Tbit/in2. To solve this problem, we propose a coupled granular /continuous medium with a soft capping layer (C-CGC medium). We investigated the read/write characteristics and thermal stability of the C-CGC medium using a micromagnetic simulator. The coercivity of the C-CGC medium can be reduced by over 40% in comparison with those of conventional granular and CGC media. The reduced coercivity of C-CGC media results in excellent read/write characteristics, despite its large anisotropy constant. Further, it is confirmed that the thermal stability of the C-CGC medium is superior to that of granular and conventional CGC media. These results show that the C-CGC medium can be considered a candidate for attaining recording densities of over 1 Tbit/in2.