Modern magnetic materials in data storage

The current status of the technology of magnetic recording as used in disk drives is reviewed. The emphasis is on the magnetic materials used in the application and on some of the technical problems that may limit the increase in areal density. The new technology of magnetic random access memory (MRAM), which has evolved from the magnetic recording application, is also reviewed. A wide range of magnetic materials is essential for the advance of magnetic recording and the MRAM technology. For the magnetic-recording application the requirements are for high-magnetization, soft magnetic materials for write heads, new antiferromagnetic alloys with high blocking temperatures, large coupling to ferromagnetic films and low susceptibility to corrosion for pinning films in giant magnetoresistive sensors, and for the MRAM application, the requirement is for new ferromagnetic alloys with large values of tunneling polarization ratio. A significant limitation to magnetic recording is found to be the inconsistent demands on media thickness: small media thicknesses are required for large values of signal-to-noise ratio, while large values of thickness are required to reduce the impact of the superparamagnetic effect, which results in the potential for data loss over time. Both of these requirements are discussed. Multilayer ferromagnetic films for recording surfaces are shown to allow both large signal-to-noise ratio and adequate resistance to data loss. (C) 2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers.