MAGNETIC AND RECORDING CHARACTERISTICS OF MULTILAYER CONICR THIN-FILM MEDIA

The magnetic properties and the recording charcteristics of multilayer CoNiCr thin film media with Cr interlayers have been examined. The great improvement in the signal to noise ratio by increasing the number of split layers is obtained, and this improvement is due to the reduced media noise which is accompanied by the reduction in the coercive squareness. TEM observation shows that the CoNiCr grains in the multilayer media are more isolated compared with the single layer media. This result suggests that the Cr interlayers constrain the crystal growth of the CoNiCr. Thus it is expected that the reduction in the media noise is due to the combined effect of the reduction in the inter-layer coupling among the CoNiCr layers by the Cr interlayers and the reduction in the inter-grain exchange coupling caused by the isolation of the CoNiCr grains. © 1990 IEEE