Narrow track recording characteristics in thin film media

In this paper, we report a combined spin-stand measurement and micromagnetic simulation study on narrow track recording characteristics in thin film media. It is found that the onset recording density of nonlinear partial erasure is determined by intertransition percolations near the track edges where the head field gradient is poor. Trimming into the shared pole in merged MR/thin film heads is necessary for performance at both high linear and high track densities. Increasing head field magnitude with respect to medium coercivity increases the width of erase band but not the actual transition track width. When the head is skewed, the edge field overwrites on-track transitions, resulting in a reduction of effective transition track width. The trimming of the shared pole in merged MR/thin film heads can significantly reduce this edge overwrite effect. It is suggested that servo writing schemes should be modified to take into account the phenomena described in this paper.