EFFECTS OF AR PRESSURE DURING COCRPT SPUTTER-DEPOSITION ON READ WRITEAND RELATED PROPERTIES OF COCRPT/CR MAGNETIC RECORDING MEDIA FORMED AT LOW-TEMPERATURES/

Structures. magnetic properties and read/write properties were studied for low-temperature-growth CoCrPt/Cr magnetic recording media. of whi ch CoCrPt films were sputter-deposited under various Ar pressures. Inc rease of Ar pressure causes both isolation enhancement and size decrea se of CoCrPt grains, which are epitaxially grown on Cr grains. Coerciv ity increases as Ar pressure increases upto 20-30 mTorr. With an incre ase of Ar pressure. fluctuation field increases more rapidly than the case when the magnetic film thickness is decreased. Consequently, an i ncrease of Ar pressure for sputter deposition significantly decreases medium noise with a slight decrease of output signal. The highest sign al-to-noise ratio of 26.4 dB for 75 kFCI recording was obtained with t he Ar pressure of 30 mTorr. This fabrication technique, which requires neither a thick Cr underlayer nor a Cr underlayer deposited under hig h Ar pressure. is especially suitable for the media with plastic subst rates. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.