Thermal stability of written bits in high density magneto-optical recording media

Measurements of magnetic domains in TbFeCo films currently used as magneto- optical recording media indicate a shrinkage in domain size under accelerat ed conditions. A criterion factor (E-a/kT) for thermal stability is found t o be about 40 for domains with a diameter of about 0.8 mum, where E-a is an activation energy estimated on the basis of Arrenius plot of the shrinkage with time. For high density recording applications, a higher wall pinning field is necessary.