Quantitative transmission electron microscopy analysis of multi-variant grains in present L10-FePt based heat assisted magnetic recording media

We present a study on atomic ordering within individual grains in granular L1(0)-FePt thin films using transmission electron microscopy techniques. The film, used as a medium for heat assisted magnetic recording, consists of a single layer of FePt grains separated by non-magnetic grain boundaries and is grown on an MgO underlayer. Using convergent-beam techniques, diffraction patterns of individual grains are obtained for a large number of crystallites. The study found that although the majority of grains are ordered in the perpendicular direction, more than 15% of them are multi-variant, or of in-plane c-axis orientation, or disordered fcc. It was also found that these multi-variant and in-plane grains have always grown across MgO grain boundaries separating two or more MgO grains of the underlayer. The in-plane ordered portion within a multi-variant L10-FePt grain always lacks atomic coherence with the MgO directly underneath it, whereas, the perpendicularly ordered portion is always coherent with the underlying MgO grain. Since the existence of multi-variant and in-plane ordered grains are severely detrimental to high density data storage capability, the understanding of their formation mechanism obtained here should make a significant impact on the future development of hard disk drive technology. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.