Noise reduction by surface oxidization of a CoCrZr seed layer on glass substrates for CoCrPt/CrTi thin film media

A method of surface oxidization of a CoCrZr seed layer has been developed. This method can control the microstructure of a CoCrPt/CrTi thin film mediu m on the glass substrate. By exposing the surface of the CoCrZr seed layer to just a little oxygen (in the order of 10(-5) Torr), the crystal orientat ion of the CrTi underlayer deposited on the seed layer is changed from (110 ) to (200), The crystal grain size of the underlayer is also affected, and smaller grains can be obtained by the surface oxidization of the seed layer . These changes in microstructure of the CrTi underlayer result in magnetic crystal grains with small grain size and in-plane c-axis orientation, Both these properties improve the read/write performance considerably.