Development of Patterned Media for Jitter Analysis

Continuous thin film magnetic media have long been used in the data storage industry but densities above 1 Tbit/in² may not be possible due to onset of the superparamagnetic limit. Patterned media have been suggested as a possible means to exceed this limit, and it has been shown that irregularities in the shape and size of magnetic islands due to imperfections in the patterning process introduce jitter in replay signals which limits attainable performance. Co/Pt multi-layers have been suggested as materials for patterning due to its strong perpendicular anisotropy and high remanent squareness. In this paper, the effects of imperfections in patterned Co/Pt island shapes and sizes were investigated. Jitter in replay signals generated from a GMR head will be compared to the variation in island size and shape which will then be compared to results generated from the model described in previous study.