Detecting dynamic signals of ideally ordered nanohole patterned disk media fabricated using nanoimprint lithography

The authors have fabricated ideally ordered alumina nanohole patterned disk media via anodic oxidation and nanoimprint lithography with a thermoplastic resist. The ordered arrays of alumina nanoholes with 100 nm pitch, filled with Co by electrodeposition, were created over a macroscopically large area on a hard-disk substrate using these industrially applicable nanofabrication technologies. Stable flight of a perpendicular magnetic head above the media and perpendicular magnetic anisotropy of the Co nanopillars enable high-speed dynamic magnetic recording and playback. Dynamic periodic signals that matched the nanopillar periodicity were clearly observed after writing bit patterns, showing alternate reversal of magnetization of the nanopillars. (C) 2007 American Institute of Physics.