Structural, magnetic and recording properties of CoCrTa/Co3O4/Pt perpendicular thin films media

This paper reports an investigation of the structural, magnetic and recording properties of a tri-layer Co80Cr16Ta4 (2000 Angstrom)/Co3O4 (50 Angstrom)/Pt (100 Angstrom) magnetic thin film. Compared with CoCrTa glass, 50 Angstrom Co3O4 and 100 Angstrom Pt, CoCrTa deposited on the composite Co3O4 (50 Angstrom>)/Pt (100 Angstrom) underlayer exhibits strong perpendicular hcp (00.2) crystalline orientation with Delta theta(50) 4.1 degrees, fine grains with sub-grain features similar to 10 - 40 nm, small S-parallel to similar to 13%, large room-temperature Hc perpendicular to similar to 1650 Oe, large R (the ratio between Hc(perpendicular to) and Hc(parallel to)) similar to 6, and a sharp Hn(perpendicular to) (perpendicular nucleation field) distribution. Recording measurements performed on the tri-layer film using a thin film tri-pad head showed a pronounced isolated di-pulse in the reproduced waveform, a D-50 of similar to 4500 frimm and noise behavior characteristic of a perpendicular medium.