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CoCrPt(B) media with high magnetic anisotropy have been fabricated at a thin magnetic layer thickness (10 nm) and a thin interlayer thickness (4 nm). The hard magnetic properties of the CoCrPt enable addition of boron, which aids to magnetically decouple the grains. These media are thermally stable and have an enhanced signal-to-noise ratio.

Theoretical analyses have projected perpendicular recording capable of achieving ultimate areal densities greater than longitudinal recording systems. For perpendicular recording to supplant longitudinal recording, laboratory demonstrations will need to be made which intercept or exceed the areal densities achieved by state-of-the-art longitudinal recording demonstrations. Recent demonstrations have come close to eliminating the gap between these technologies. In this paper, recording experiments at areal densities in the 60 to 100 Gb/in 2 range will be described. It will be shown that the head field from conventional single-pole writers is not well localized to the data track and that if the media do not have sufficiently high nucleation thresholds, this fringe field will gradually erase data on the adjacent track if the track pitch is too aggressive. Extension of this technology to densities of the order of 1 Tb/in 2 will require heads that reduce the extent of the fringe field without sacrificing available on-track field.Index Terms-Magnetic recording high-density recording, magnetic recording systems integration, superparamagnetic limit.

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A focused ion beam (FIB) is used to fabricate singlepole perpendicular writers by micro-machining longitudinal (ring) heads at the HGA. The heads are designed for media characterization, and a comparison is made between the performance of the FIBed and ring heads on perpendicular media. The FIBed heads write much more effectively, approximately 7 dB gain in the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and efficiently than their ring-head counterparts. In addition, the FIBed heads generate very reliable (small scatter) thermal decay rates for the evaluated disks whereas the unFIBed ring heads cannot, all of which make them more suitable for characterization of perpendicular media. Our results further demonstrate the value and versatility of FIB-machining as a research tool to design and fabricate novel recording heads with robust performance.Index Terms-Disk drives, focused ion beam, magnetic heads, magnetic recording, system analysis and design.