Effects of SiO2 content on the nanomechanical properties of CoCrPt-SiO2 granular films.

ABSTRACT

CoCrPt material is used for perpendicular magnetic recording media due to its high magneto-crystalline anisotropy that brings good thermal stability on the media. The addition of SiO2 between the CoCrPt grains offers benefits including lower noise and better thermal stability. It has been reported that the SiO2 content has strong effects on the media's recording performance such as coercivity, anisotropy and noise. In this work, we focus on studying the effects of the SiO2 content on the nanomechanical properties of the media which are critical for the head-disk interface reliability. Variations of these properties with SiO2 content provide guidelines for optimum designs considering both recording and mechanical interface performance.