Measurement of the linear density dependence of thermal decay of square-wave recordings

Using a unique referencing technique, the signal decay of thin-film media i s studied as a function of recorded linear density and temperature with gre at precision. It is found that the signal decay behavior as a function of l inear density is very complex: the maximum decay does not always occur at t he highest linear density as expected. Only for media with strong thermal d ecay is the signal decay found to increase monotonically with the recorded linear density. It is confirmed that increasing temperature generally accel erates signal decay.