How antiferromagnetic coupling can stabilize recorded information

Antiferromagnetic coupling (AFC) can be used to stabilize recorded information because it: 1) reduces the demagnetizing fields at storage and 2) increases the energy barrier against magnetization reversal. It is shown that weak AFC is most advantageous and that both mechanisms work for superparamagnetic stabilization layers. It is also shown that the stabilization layer is recorded during the write process. The relaxation to the antiferromagnetic state is observed experimentally.