Trilayer media for high track density longitudinal recording

This paper introduces a new recording method using a trilayer medium (recording layer/nonmagnetic layer/soft magnetic layer/substrate) to diminish the side written band width (Delta W). Magnetostatic coupling between the soft magnetic layer in the media and the write head poles decreases the side fringing field off the track edges. Off-track overwrite experiments revealed that the trilayer media reduced Delta W by 40%-60% compared to the monolayer medium while maintaining the effective write track width and the linear resolution. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.