Noise in high performance thin-film longitudinal magnetic recording media

The problem of noise in thin-film longitudinal media is analyzed experimentally and theoretically. The physical mechanism for the noise is shown to be fluctuations in the geometry of the zig-zag transitions separating bit cells. The shifted-transition noise model is introduced as a means of quantifying the noise processes. Spatial, spectral, and autocorrelation properties are introduced. A calculation of the RMS noise voltage yields the characteristic noise versus density curves found experimentally, and clarifies their interpretation with respect to the signal-to-noise ratio. The corresponding experimental data for several plated and sputtered media are presented and analyzed in the light of the model predictions.     

High density recording with perpendicular Co-Cr-Nb media and ring heads

Effective double layer structure was investigated by adding Nb to the sputtering source of Co-Cr thin film perpendicular magnetic recording tapes. The output from the tapes was measured with a ring head through to the short wavelength, λ50=0.19 μm (D50=267KFRPI).     

Total magnetic fields and read characteristics of infinite length pole piece magnetic recording heads

Magnetic recording head fields generated by current distributions of zero total current flux are calculated considering the two topological possibilities for the current elements being either external to infinite permeability pole pieces or contained entirely within the pole pieces. The frequency response for each of these field configurations is determined by application of the fast Fourier transform.     

Spatial noise phenomena of longitudinal magnetic recording media

The authors have studied the spatial noise characteristics of uniformly magnetized media and implemented a synchronous magnetic pulse detection technique to measure waveforms from precise radial and azimuthal locations on a magnetically recorded disk. They introduce a correlation analysis which includes measuring noise waveforms from the same position on the disk under different remanent magnetic states. Results from this analysis demonstrate that at remanence only minor changes occur in the output waveform and its (presumed) corresponding magnetic structure from write to write, while at DC demagnetization large variations are seen for successive writes. This sensitive correlation technique is used to analyze the random and deterministic components of media and head noise     

Comparison of ring and pole head magnetic fields

Idealized mathematical models of the magnetic fields generated by ring and single-pole heads are examined. In each case, more accurate Fourier coefficients than have been published previously are provided. However, the main purpose is to consider, in a more rigorous manner than has been presented before, the correspondence between the fields of ring and pole heads. Ranges of parameters and areas of the domain are identified for which the fields are almost identical. In the region of each geometry occupied by the recording medium, the similarities were less clear     

Perpendicular magnetic recording performance of double-layer media

Perpendicular magnetic recording performance for double-layer (Co-Cr,Ni-Fe) media was analyzed, with a simple magnetization model, in comparison with single-layer media. The calculated output voltage from a ring-shaped reproducing head shows good agreement with experimental data. It is shown theoretically and empirically that the Co-Cr layer thickness can be reduced without sacrificing the output amplitude, if the Ni-Fe layer is placed underneath it to perform as a "flux sink" to extinguish the rear surface charge on the Co-Cr layer.     

Recording on perpendicular anisotropy media with ring heads

This paper reports experimental studies directed at the application of ring head structures to a perpendicular recording system. The media tested were sputter deposited films of CoCrTa alloys. Ferrite heads were studied, but the thin film head was chosen for evaluating roll-off, overwrite, and superposition. The data presented in the paper demonstrates the potential of high density recording with a single layer medium with perpendicular magnetic anistropy and a thin film head separated by 0.20 micrometers.     

Characterization of magnetic recording heads for drive-specificapplications

Window margin, time interval and waveform analysis techniques that better describe salient on-track performance issues are described. Many of these techniques can be extended to accommodate the addition of off-track and peak shift effects     

Properties of one-sided probe heads on double-layer perpendicular recording media

The perpendicular recording mode is still a candidate for obtaining higher densities. Best recording results on a double-layer (DL) medium must be expected from using a probe head (PH). This contribution provides an analysis of the write-read performance of one-sided PHs that do not use an auxiliary pole on the back of the medium. Analytical as well as numerical models were used to calculate the effects of saturation and medium thickness on the write fields. Experimental verification of the modeling results was obtained by measuring the wavelength response of many W-shaped PHs on DL media. Combining this with the calculated response, we obtained a semi-empirical relation between the pole nulls, pole thickness and the pole-to-backlayer distance. It reveals a PH behaviour very different from a ring head (RH). The pole thickness calculated from the measured pole-null wavelengths showed a very close agreement with the optically determined value. The calculated head efficiencies are very small, as was confirmed experimentally, and need improvement before the PH has an output comparable with a RH.     

Properties of side-shielded read heads in longitudinal and perpendicular recording

Side-shielded (SS) read heads were fabricated, and their magnetic track widths were calculated and measured. The measurements in longitudinal recording show that SS heads exhibit sharper profiles compared with side-unshielded heads. To examine the effect of side shielding, we studied the dependence of the magnetic read width on write density using calculations and experiments. The calculations indicate that the SS head can reduce the skirt of the microtrack profile even at low densities, while the side-unshielded head cannot. This result was qualitatively found in an experiment. We also studied the SS effect in perpendicular recording and found better performance. The calculations predict that SS can strongly reduce the skirt of the microtrack profile even in perpendicular recording. We observed a sharper profile in an SS head compared with a side-unshielded one.     

Comparison of reproduction performance of a single pole head and a ring head

The reproduction pulse amplitude of a single pole head from double-layer perpendicular media has been analyzed. We derived an analytic expression to relate the pulse amplitude to the head and medium parameters. Experimental data are also presented to verify the calculated results. The reproduction performances of a single pole head and a ring head are theoretically compared and found to be comparable when both are normalized to the same head inductance.     

Demagnetization-free longitudinal recording on flexible thin film metal media

The variation of demagnetization effects with media parameters for longitudinal contact recording has been investigated. Co-Re thin film metal media were sputtered onto flexible polyimide substrates. It was found that when the film thickness δ and demagnetizaton parameterB_{r}delta/H_{c}were less than 2 μ inch and 15 μinch, respectively, demagnetization-free longitudinal recording was obtained up to the recording density of 75 KFRPI at the head-to-medium spacing of 3 μ inch. As a result, recording densities of D50over 50 KFRPI were achieved with a 20 μinch gap head. For thicker films with larger demagnetization parameters, i.e.,delta geq 4 muinch andB_{r}delta/H_{c} geq 40 muinch, the longitudinal recording process approached the demagnetization limit. The results show that (with existing head field gradients) improvement in linear density of thin metal media can be obtained by an approximate factor of two before the demagnetization limit is reached.     

Wear properties of perpendicular magnetic recording media

Wear properties of sputtered Co-Cr/permalloy double layer on flexible substrate with and without an inorganic protective top layer were studied under simulated tribological conditions. A soft head slider (ex. glass) gave even severer damage to media than the hard one (ex. Al2O3-TiC), and a 200 Å thin inorganic protective top layer was effective enough to enhance resistance against wear. Read-write experiments were also done with use of the double layer flexible media with the protective top layer (200 Å in thickness) by running them on a specially designed driver unit with an Al2O3.TiC spherical SPT head. An out-put signal loss was no more than 3dB even after 10 million times of the head passes.     

Calculation of the switching constant of magnetic recording media

We studied the dynamic switching time in two classes of media by considering two different particle orientation distribution functions. We calculated the switching constant directly from the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation of motion, which was chosen to simulate the dynamic properties of the media. A strong linear relation between the reciprocal of the switching time and the difference between the applied and anisotropy fields is illustrated. In media for which experimental results are available, the values we obtained here agree within a factor of 2     

Fabrication of magnetic nanodot arrays for patterned magnetic recording media

Fabrication processes of arrayed magnetic nanodots for the use of patterned magnetic recording media were reviewed. One candidate for the patterned media is ordered assemble of magnetic nanoparticles, and the other is patterned magnetic thin films fabricated using various micro/nano scale machining processes. For the formation of patterned masks and molds, lithography processes as well as self-organized pattern formation are utilized. For the deposition processes of magnetic dots, electrochemical deposition processes were widely used. These fabrication processes are reviewed mainly from recent reports. The recording systems for the patterned media including probe-type-recording are also overviewed.     

An analysis of tilted magnetic transitions in magnetic recording media

A theoretical analysis of a transition is presented. The centerline of the transition through the media is tilted from the normal to the surface. For an isolated transition, it is shown that both the demagnetizing fields and the readback pulse shape are dependent upon the amount of tilting. For the case of sinusoidal recording, the tilting introduces an additional phase shift and amplitude reduction in the neadback signal. The signal amplitude reduction is shown to become oscillatory as the tilting increases.     

Temperature dependent magnetic properties of barium-ferritethin-film recording media

Temperature dependencies of magnetic properties were measured in barium-ferrite thin films with grains having in-plane aligned as well as randomly oriented easy axes. The temperature dependence of H_c was shown to be similar to that of the effective anisotropy field, which is determined by the crystalline and shape anisotropies. The measured H _c values in the easy-axis aligned and randomly oriented films are significantly smaller than those predicted by the Stoner-Wohlfarth (SW) coherent rotation model. Such discrepancies are believed to be caused by incoherent rotation. Deviations from the SW model were also found within a wide temperature range in the angular dependence of coercivity and remanent coercivity, the field dependence of torque and rotational hysteresis. These led to the conclusion that temperature has only weak affects on the rotation mode of the magnetization. The discrepancies between the thermal activation volume and the grain size which were found previously at room temperature, and were believed to be yet another signature of incoherent rotation, were shown to also exist at a low temperature of 173 K     

Trends and projections in magnetic recording storage on particulate media

Improving the performance and extending the utility of information processing requires access to ever larger volumes of data. Thus, the impact of progress in storage technology on the overall growth of the information processing industry is immense. By advances that continually reduce the cost of storage it becomes feasible to develop and place more and more applications on computer systems by permitting both a larger system data base and more sophisticated control and applications programs. Unfortunately, the term "mass storage" has no precise technical meaning, being all too frequently used to describe on-line peripheral storage of a size bigger than a user currently believes he can justify. Once the user's system is upgraded to that level, however, as technical advances over time allow capacity to be increased for a fixed cost, this amount of storage is barely considered adequate, much less "mass." In discussing hardware, the term is most commonly associated with mechanical storage devices. While solid-state memory continually provides more and more bits per chip, the rate at which storage capacity can be absorbed grows even faster, and thus it seems electronic memories will never eliminate the use of auxiliary storage devices. As storage costs decrease, applications expand, the market grows, and product volume increases; the resulting cost reductions in turn reinforce the cycle. In addition, it then becomes feasible to increase investment in technology, which results in a further improvement in cost/performance. It is thus important to understand storage technology trends if one is to anticipate the future.     

Models of the longitudinal digital magnetic recording process in thin films

A review of the various mathematical models of the longitudinal recording process in thin-film recording media is given. One of the main focuses of the review is on the arctangent theories of recording, and these are discussed in terms of both their successes and their failures. More recent work shows an increasing trend towards determining the nature of the recorded distributions directly from the calculations.<>     

Side fringing fields and write and read crosstalk of narrow magnetic recording heads

In magnetic recording systems the side fringing fields of magnetic recording heads are responsible for crosstalk from adjacent tracks and eventually for partial erasure of adjacent tracks, thereby limiting the attainable track density. In this paper we derive analytical expressions for the magnetic field near the side of a recording head and calculate the cosine transform of the longitudinal field component, with the head side angle and gap length as parameters. The field of a head of zero width is also considered. Due to the side fringing field the written track is somewhat wider than the geometrical head width; the increase in width being approximately proportional to the maximum field strength in the recording medium and the head-to-medium distance. The amplitudeuof the read crosstalk signal from an adjacent, infinitesimally narrow track is calculated and it appears that it can be approximated byu/u_{0} = 0.5 exp (-2pi x/lambda), where u0is the on-track signal (with zero head-to-medium spacing),xis the distance between track and head side, and λ is the wavelength. Maximum track densities are calculated for a specified crosstalk-to-signal ratio and a given head width and wavelength. For a wavelength of 10 μm, a head width of 5 μm, and a crosstalk of -20 dB, the track density is limited to about 130 tracks/mm, assuming a track width equal to the head width. When the track is taken to be 5 μm wider than the head to account for the effects of the write process, no guardband at all is needed for -20 dB crosstalk and the limit to the track density is 100 tracks/mn.