Improvement of magnetic properties of granular perpendicular recording media by using a fcc nonmagnetic intermediate layer with stacking faults

Various binary systems are investigated as face-centered cubic (fcc) bases for the nonmagnetic intermediate layer (NMIL) in granular perpendicular recording media. Loss of stacking order on the (111) plane in fcc NMIL is found to enhance the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy energy (K-u(RL)) of the overlying medium. One persuasive reason for this enhancement is the preferred epitaxial growth of magnetic grains on only the (111) atomic terrace of the fcc NMIL due to collapse of the sixfold symmetry of ((1) over bar 11), (1 (1) over bar1), and (11 (1) over bar) and (11 (1) over bar) atomic terraces of the fcc NMIL. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.