COUPLING AND CRYSTALLOGRAPHIC EFFECTS IN THIN-FILM COBALT ALLOY RECORDING MEDIA

Intergranular interactions and time dependence effects have been studi ed in two classes of Go-alloy ternary and quaternary thin films. The r ole of integranular coupling was investigated in films with sputter te xture as well as in films with bicrystal structure. Both classes of me dia exhibited low noise. It was found via the Delta I(H) technique tha t ex-change coupling was predominant in bicrystal films while sputter texture samples were magnetically decoupled. The time dependence studi es revealed that both sputter texture and a bicrystal microstructure a re effective ways to produce thin films with very low activation volum es suitable for high density recording.