Effect of seed layers in improving the crystallographic texture of CoCrPt perpendicular recording media

In this work, we have systematically investigated the effect of Ti and Ta seed layers on the improvement of c-axis alignment of the CoCrPt film. We studied the film texture by x-ray diffraction and electron diffraction, and microstructure and morphology by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. Both Ti and Ta improve the texture of CoCrPt perpendicular magnetic media depending on the seed layer thickness. The 5–10-nm thick seed layer shows the best c-axis alignment of CoCrPt films when the seed layer is amorphous. The c-axis alignment of magnetic layer deteriorates for random texture and mixed amorphous and crystalline microstructure of the seed layer. The texture of the magnetic layer improves for the film with about 40-nm-thick seed layer with the development of favorable texture in seed layer and with occasional epitaxial growth on seed layer.