Study of grain interactions in perpendicular magnetic recording media using first order reversal curve diagrams

Abstract

It is demonstrated that, for perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) media, first order reversal curve analysis can independently measure the grain coercive field distribution (or switching field distribution) and the strength of grain interactions, i.e., the demagnetization (mean-field) factor and the dispersion of grain interaction fields around the mean-field. The coercive field distribution is used to determine the intrinsic anisotropy field distribution of PMR media. The temperature dependence of the demagnetization factor shows that the strength of inter-granular exchange coupling is increasing with increasing medium thickness and it is decreasing with increasing temperature.