Heat assisted magnetic recording by combined field emission and moderate ionization in air

The authors report the enhancement of magnetic recording process by the combined field emission and moderate ionization between the write pole and magnetic media in a heat assisted magnetic recording experiment. When appropriate bias voltages are applied across the head-media gap, field emission from the write pole results in a sustainable moderate ionization without catastrophic air breakdown. The elevated media temperature from electron bombardment leads to reduced media coercivity. Our results show a 25% improvement to writing ability on perpendicular magnetic recording media using a modified read/write head. The effect of different combined emission/ionization currents with different read/write linear velocities was also studied.