A STUDY OF MAGNETIC RECORDING MEDIA ON GLASS SUBSTRATES

Magnetic media deposited on glass substrates with metal seedlayer, Cr underlayer and CoCrPtTa alloy were studied. Within each group of sampl es, although the bulk magnetic properties were made to be similar, the media noise differed significantly; microstructural study indicated t hat the grain sizes of the magnetic layers were similar. X-ray diffrac tion study indicated that the magnetic layer was mostly {10.0} texture d, with some [00.2] and [10.1] oriented grains also present. A correla tion was observed between stronger CoCrPtTa {00.2} diffraction peak an d lower media noise; the Cr {200} peak in the lower noise media was al so much weaker. The different crystallographic tenture is likely promo ted by the surface condition of the seedlayer; larger number of [00.2] grains within the mostly {10.0} textured magnetic layer may suppress the formation of large coherently-magnetized regions in the zig-zag tr ansitions, which would result in lower media noise.