Texture induced spatial variation in switching fields

A method for mapping the microscopic spatial variation of switching fields in magnetic recording media using a magnetic force microscope is described. The method is applied to samples with different substrate textures to examine the effect of texture on magnetic switching behavior. Reversals are found to occur in chains along the texture direction for fields coincident with the texturing. For fields applied transverse to the texture, no long range order is seen in the reversal process. Untextured media also show some tendency for reversal to progress along the field direction.