Recording Performance of Perpendicular Magnetic Recording Media Measured With Contact-Type Cusp-Field Write Head

The recording performance of perpendicular magnetic recording media with CoPtCr-SiO₂ storage layers was investigated by using contact-type and flying-type cusp-field write heads. It was suggested that contact recording can be very effective in improving the recording performance, in comparison with the flying-type write head. The recording resolution and overwrite performance were explained in terms of write ability, but were independent of the microstructure of the granular storage layer. On the other hand, the magnetic isolation between magnetic grains in the storage layer was very effective in decreasing medium noise. This improvement of recording performance was attributed to the formation of a well-isolated fine-gain structure from the initial growing region in a two-step deposited storage layer. Moreover, it was confirmed that the transition jitter is still the main cause of the medium noise in perpendicular magnetic recording using contact-type write heads