Magnetic and microstructural properties of CoCrPt/CoCrPtSi dual-layered magnetic recording media

Abstract

The magnetic properties of CoCrPt/CoCrPtSi dual-magnetic-layered thin films are investigated in terms of the crystalline microstructures using a vibrating-sample magnometer, transmission electron microscope, and scanning electron microscope. The magnetic crystal grains of the films are aligned with forming chainlike clusters. Each stacked magnetic crystal grain is epitaxially grown on individually isolated columnar Cr crystals with a relationship of hcp (101̄1)Co-based alloy //bcc (110)Cr. The direction of magnetic easy axes of two stacked magnetic crystals are aligned in a same direction. Single-crystalline dual-magnetic-layered thin films, which are epitaxially grown on MgO(110) single-crystal substrates, are prepared to estimate the Ku of the dual-layered magnetic grains. The Ku is determined to be 4×106 erg/cm3, whose value is about 2 times as large as that of single-layered CoCrPtSi. This large anisotropy energy is presumed to lead the increase of Hc in the dual-layered magnetic films.