Correlation of surface roughness with the recording characteristics of thin metal-particle tape

The presence of surface roughness in tape media results in a head-to-medium spacing that fluctuates throughout the recording process, which can have a large impact on the recording performance of the tape. To provide an understanding of the fluctuations introduced by the roughness, a self-consistent recording model combined with a micromagnetic MR readback module was used to study the recording (write) process on thin-layer metal-particle media with spatially correlated surface roughness. Correlation was made between the surface roughness and the recording characteristics through a spatial analysis of the recordings. Media with both long and short roughness correlation were investigated. Discussions on recording schemes that offer better immunity to the fluctuations introduced by the surface roughness are provided, and in particular the impact on write equalization is evaluated. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(00)39108-3].