Advanced laminated antiferromagnetically coupled recording media with high thermal stability

A layered structure to improve the antiferromagnetic exchange coupling constant (J) in laminated antiferromagnetically coupled (LAC) media is proposed. This structure has a much larger thermal stability in comparison to simple LAC structures. It also improves the coercivity and decreases the remnant moment-thickness product to achieve a high resolution and a low pulse width. The recording measurements indicate that this structure has a slightly larger noise than the simple LAC structures. However, its overall signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is comparable to that of the simple LAC structures. High SNR and much higher thermal stability make this structure suitable for ultrahigh areal densities.