Interlayer exchange coupling in synthetic ferrimagnet structures consisting of perpendicularly magnetized CoCrPt and in-plane magnetized CoFeB layers, which are coupled by a Ru thin spacer, were investigated. The magnetization of the CoFeB layer turned perpendicular to the film plane after annealing at 300°C because of the appearance of interlayer coupling from the CoCrPt layer. The coupling va...

The influence of stress on the nucleation field was investigated for CoCrPt perpendicular media grown on a Ta/Hf buffer layer. The nucleation field increased to 21.5 kOe ~second quadrant! following postdeposition annealing of a sample at 232 °C in air for 1 h. The residual in-plane stress for the annealed film was tensile, and in-plane x-ray diffraction showed that the a0 lattice parameter incr...

It was observed that the coercivity of CoCrPt films deposited on a polyimide tape was much lower than the coercivity deposited on a rigid glass substrate under identical conditions. X-ray diffraction showed that the desirable ~112! and ~110! texture of the NiAl/CrMn underlayers on the tape substrate was severely degraded during the deposition process. This resulted in the destruction of ~10.0! ...

Sputter deposited MgO thin films with the B1 crystal structure and ~002! film texture are used as seed layers to improve the texture and magnetic properties of the CoCrPt/Cr magnetic thin films on glass substrates for longitudinal recording. The desired ~002! textured Cr underlayers are usually obtained by sputtering Cr onto heated substrates. However, it is found that the MgO seed layers can i...

A class of nanocrystalline alloys, HITPERM ~Fe, Co!–M–B–Cu (M5Zr,Hf,Nb, etc.! found to exhibit excellent soft-magnetic properties is being studied for use as a soft-magnetic underlayer for perpendicular recording media. Previously, we reported that HITPERM films of ;100 nm thickness sputtered at room temperature ~RT! and at ;2.3 W/cm power density had exhibited an amorphous microstructure, whic...

We have investigated the magnetic and structural properties of CoCrPt perpendicular films with respect to in situ interdiffusion of CrMn from top layers. We have observed a coercivity of 5700 Oe in the films with a thin CrMn overlayer, which is greater than two times larger than the similar type of films without a CrMn overlayer. This increment is attributed to the decoupling of grains by diffu...

Magnetic transmission soft X-ray microscopy has been used to study element—specifically the magnetization reversal behavior of (Co84Cr16)87Pt13 alloy thin films with a lateral resolution of 35 nm. Our results indicate that the magnetization switching is carried out by a random nucleation process that can be attributed to the reversal of individual grains. We found evidence of a large distributi...