Investigation of patterned thin film media for ultra-high density recording

Micromagnetic modeling is used to study the recording characteristics of patterned polycrystalline thin film media. The dependence of medium noise on medium microstructure is quantitatively investigated. It is found that for patterned media the medium noise arises from magnetization fluctuation at the saturate remanent state. Forming the orientation preference of anisotropy easy axes along the recording direction significantly reduces the medium noise of patterned media. Large bit aspect ratio is preferred to reduce medium noise. For patterned media, a moderate exchange coupling helps to maintain medium thermal stability and the medium noise it introduces is negligible.