Advanced perpendicular recording media structure with a magnetic intermediate layer

Co Cr Pt – Si O 2 perpendicular recording media containing a CoCr-based magnetic layer as an intermediate layer was studied. CoCr film deposited on a growth control layer such as Ta could grow with a hcp[0002] out-of-plane orientation, which could induce the desired perpendicular easy-axis orientation for the CoCrPt:SiO2 magnetic layer. It was observed that the growth of an intermediate layer based on Ru between the magnetic intermediate layer and the magnetic recording layer is crucial to reduce the noise. Recording performance of disks with a magnetic intermediate layer was comparable or better than that of conventional perpendicular media indicating the potential of the proposed structure.