Composite media with reduced write temperature for heat assisted magnetic recording

A major issue plaguing Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) is the high writing (T write ) and peak heat spot temperatures (T peak ). To counter this, a low temperature thermal exchange coupled composite (ECC) media with reduced write temperature relative to previous high temperature thermal ECC media is introduced. The FePt T c is reduced from 700 K to 500 K, and the write layer T c is reduced from 900 K to 600 K. Optimizations for M s and K u of the write layer generate values of M s = 700 emu/cm 3 and K u = 1.0 × 10 7 erg/cm 3 at 300 K. Switching Probability Distribution (SPD) calculations with lowered T peak = 650 K indicate T write = 487 K. This indicates a T write reduction by 34% as compared to the previous write temperature of 738 K for the high temperature thermal ECC media. Examining the FWHM of the SPD under 0% and 3% T c variation indicates a noise reduction of ∼20% relative to single layer high T c FePt media, and a much larger reduction relative to low T c FePt media. The jitter values at lowered T c approach the ideal value set by the grain size in the absence of any T c and K u variation. Simulations with uncorrelated and correlated T c and K u variations in the write and FePt layer generate similar results. Reduction of FePt T c may reduce the anisotropy relative to its undoped value: reduction of anisotropy by 33% is found to adversely affect the SPD by only 3–4%, but has a larger impact on jitter. These results help establish the usefulness of a low temperature thermal exchange coupled composite media for HAMR.