SIMULATIONS OF HIGHLY ANISOTROPIC CO-CR-TA THIN-FILMS

Co-Cr-Ta thin film media produced by transfer deposition are known to be highly anisotropic. Earlier experimental work shows these films ach ieve the maximum theoretically possible delta I in the parallel direct ion but small deviation from zero transverse to the sputtering directi on. A thin film micromagnetic model has been extended to simulate this highly anisotropic behavior. It was found that anisotropic exchange c oupling was insufficient to account for the anisotropic behavior. Good agreement with experiment has been obtained using an approach which m odifies the exchange coupling and the magnetostatic interaction. The l arge values of delta I are ascribed to difficulties in the production of the ac demagnetized state. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.