10 Gbit/in.2 longitudinal media on a glass substrate (invited)

This article reports on the properties of the media prepared on glass substrates which were used in IBM’s 10 Gbit/in.2 demonstration. In order to support a linear density of 315 kbpi and a track density of 33 ktpi, the remanant coercivity Hcr and remanant moment thickness product Mrt of the magnetic layer were 3450 Oe and 0.37 memu/cm2, respectively. The media used a NiAl seed layer, a CrV underlayer, a Co alloy magnetic layer, and a carbon overcoat protection layer. The magnetic film had a grain size of 12 nm as observed by transmission electron microscopy. The preferred orientation (PO) of the magnetic layer was (101̄0). This PO enables one to sustain high coercivities at low values of Mrt. It is observed that the c-axis in-plane texture of the magnetic layer is critical to achieve a low noise medium. Using a focused-ion-beam (FIB) trimmed giant magnetoresistance head and conventional partial response maximum likelihood channel, the on-track-error rates were measured at the 10−10 level.