FePtAg-C Nanogranular Film as Thermally Assisted Magnetic Recording (TAR) Media

We studied highly L10-ordered FePtAg-C nanogranular film as a potential high-density storage medium for thermally assisted magnetic recording (TAR). A 6.4-nm-thick FePtAg-C film was fabricated on an oxidized silicon substrate with a 10-nm MgO underlayer at 550°C, with the perpendicular coercivity of 35 kOe, and average grain size of 6.2 ± 1.4 nm. The time-dependence measurement of remnant coercivity results in the energy barrier Eb=5.1 eV ~ 200 kBT, meaning excellent thermal stability for long-term data storage. The static tester experiments by TAR head demonstrated an areal density of 550 Gb/in2.