Temperature Performance of Dual-Layer Hamr Media

Heat assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) has been shown to provide substantial growth in hard disk areal densities compared to the conventional perpendicular recording [1 , 2] . The continued growth of areal density capability (ADC) of HAMR media relies on the grain-size reduction of its media grains. As we continue to reduce the grain-size, however, the maximum ADC is expected to close around ~3 Tbpsi, limited by the lowered magnetic stability of grains [1] . Dual layer media, with an exchange break layer separating two layers of distinct Tc was proposed [3] as a design paradigm that would allow continued areal density improvements.