The uniform magnetic field of various strength was applied to the perpendicularly and in-plane demagnetized media, and the change in each magnetic cluster state was investigated as the fundamental investigation of the influence of demagnetization method on noise during signal recording on the stacked perpendicular recording media. The results showed that the in-plane demagnetization can achieve lower noise level if the recording field is not very high. In other words, the in-plane demagnetization is an effective way to achieve lower noise in transition area, near track edge of recorded bit, and in high-density bit. In addition, the simulation clarified that this noise reduction can be explained using the idea of sub-domain structure in the in-plane demagnetized media.

There are two methods of writing servo signals with high speed in a perpendicular magnetic recording medium by magnetic duplication: bit printing (BP) and edge printing (EP). In this study, the influence of spacing between master and slave media on duplication characteristics in both BP and EP has been investigated by the three-dimensional finite-element method. The results show that the duplication characteristic in each method is deteriorated with a large spacing. Also, the influence of a small spacing is stronger in BP than in EP.

In recent years, perpendicular magnetic recording have progressed rapidly. It will not be long before perpendicular magnetic recording is put into practical use. However there have been few tools contributing to the optimum design of perpendicular magnetic recording media and heads except computer simulations. The authors have introduced a simple method based on the concept of self-consistent magnetization to analytically predict a transition parameter in terms of parameters of recording media and writing heads. Moreover we have discussed the origin of media noise by using a time-domain analysis of readout voltage and Voronoi cell model analysis. In this paper, main parameters to realize high bit density recording over 100 Gbit/inch2 is discussed first through these methods, and then the current status, the future problems and the prospects in perpendicular magnetic recording technology are described.

Physical limitation of the conventional longitudinal media has been actualized recent days according to the dramatic increase in storage area density with a growth ratio of more than 100%/year so that perpendicular recording is being watched with keen interest. Development in perpendicular recording media from the proposal to actual usage for HDD system are reviewed in terms of historical back ground, recent media design and preparation, new media proposal and recording performances, mainly basing on the author's results. In case of perpendicular media, physical limit of thermal stability could not be so serious but media noise reduction with sophisticated preparation method has been research topics as the breakthrough for the commercialization. Improvements on Co-Cr system alloy media were made by introducing proper additives and under layers so that a high storage density over 60 Gb/inch2 has been achieved. Far higher density up to 1 Tera bits/ inch2 is expected to be possible by using newly proposed Co/Pd multilayer or Fe-Pt metal compound films. It is prospected that breakthrough for the future progresses would be mechanical issues such as head medium spacing and tribology problems rather than magnetic properties of media.

The medium noise of single-layer perpendicular recording media is known to be suppressed by reducing the magnetic domain size and achieving a higher squareness ratio (Mr/Ms = SQ) in the perpendicular M-H loop. The media with smaller domain sizes exhibit a small slope at Hc in the M-H loop due to exchange de-coupling between adjacent grains, which requires a sharp head field to acquire high recording performances. Reduction of the medium thickness would be effective for recording as only a sharp head field near the head surface could be used. Thus, the effects of reduced recording layer thickness in single-layer perpendicular recording media on read/write performances were investigated using Co/Pd multilayer media with a small loop slope having thickness, δ, of 46, 22 and 10 nm, and with a steeper loop slope having δ of 40 and 10 nm. It was found that the recording performance on small loop slope media could be improved in terms of signal level by reducing the recording layer thickness, which indicated that the recording on the media was sensitive to the recording head field. The results in the simulation analysis were similar to those obtained experimentally, indicating that the change in recording layer thickness could be mainly regarded as that in the head-medium spacing. Thinner media with steeper loop slopes could acquire a narrower dipulse width. The recording resolution of the present media, however, was determined under the influence of the domain structure and the size. Finally, for media with small loop slopes, the same SNR of 38 dB at 100 kFRPI was obtained for thicknesses of 22 and 10 nm, which was larger than that for a thick medium of 46 nm thickness by 8 dB. For both the steep loop slope media, the obtained SNR was 35 dB at 100 kFRPI.

In this paper, we will present a study of the time-dependence effect in alumite perpendicular media at different thicknesses. Important parameters of the time-dependence effect such as magnetic viscosity and activation volume are investigated. Viscosity as a function of applied field (viscosity curve) exhibits a short plateau at a low field and then decreases monotonously with increasing field. After correcting for the demagnetizing field, the shape of the intrinsic viscosity curves changes to the well-known shape of the viscosity curve of in-plane media, i. e. , they have a peak near Hc. The intrinsic viscosity curves obtained from the experiments were fitted to an analytical model by Chantrell et al., from which, we found that the effective switching volumes obtained by fitting are much smaller than the column volumes, indicating that the reversal mechanism is incoherent.

Ring head recording on single-layer perpendicular recording media was studied by a simple simulation analysis based on a loop tracing method considering only the perpendicular component. Although the assumed model was primitive, the simulation results qualitatively well explained the experimental results such as a decrease in output at high recording currents and its relaxation upon using a smaller gap-length head. The simulation results revealed that achievable recorded magnetization is, in general, much smaller than the saturation value due to a broad distribution of the ring head field, but a medium with a steeper slope in the perpendicular M-H loop could improve the recording performance. This was confirmed experimentally for the medium with a steeper loop slope, though the medium exhibited a larger medium noise at high densities. It was suggested that the development of perpendicular recording for higher output and lower noise could be performed for both media with a small and steep loop slope. The former should be improved by means of the recording head while the latter by the media. A large improvement is expected for both cases.