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1, JANUARY 2000
Abstract—High K , uniaxial magnetocrystalline anisotropy, Not surprisingly, therefore, rather “moderate” media pa-
materials are generally attractive for ultrahigh density magnetic rameters of – erg/cm3 and –
recording applications as they allow smaller, thermally stable emu/cm3, hence switching fields in the order of
media grains. Prominent candidates are rare-earth transition
metals (Co5Sm,…) and tetragonal intermetallic compounds (L10 – Oe, have been assumed in recent
phases FePt, CoPtY,…), which have 20–40 times higher than 40–100 Gbits/in2 areal density designs [2], [3]. Allowable grain
today’s hexagonal Co-alloy based media. This allows for about 3 sizes, compatible with the thermal stability requirement, are
times smaller grain diameters, , and a potential 10-fold areal about – nm (grain diameter) and (media
density increase ( 1 2 ), well beyond the currently projected
thickness/grain diameter ratio) in one of these scenarios [2].
40–100 Gbits/in2 mark. Realization of such densities will depend
on a large number of factors, not all related to solving media By comparison, recent 10 Gbits/in2 media designs already use
microstructure problems. In particular, it is at present not known nm grains [7], indicating that there is “limited”
how to record into such media, which may require write fields in room for further grain size and therefore noise reduction.
the order of 10–100 kOe. Despite this unsolved problem, there Improved coding techniques, allowing signal retrieval at lower
is considerable interest in high Ku alternative media, both for signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) [8], as well as reduced bit aspect
longitudinal and perpendicular recording. Activities in this area
will be reviewed and data on sputtered and evaporated thin FePt ratios ( write width; =
films, with coercivities exceeding 10000 Oe will be presented. linear transition spacing) which are favorable from the SNR
perspective, may soon be needed to continue areal density
Index Terms—FePt, hard magnet materials, high alloys, L10
phases, longitudinal media. growth beyond 20–40 Gbits/in2. The latter is expected to drop
from – in the recent 20 Gbits/in2 laboratory
demonstrations [1] to at 100 Gbits/in2 [2], [3].
I. INTRODUCTION If one drops or circumvents the write field constraint, e.g. by
implementing temperature assisted writing schemes [9], higher
A REAL densities in longitudinal magnetic recording have
reached 36 Gbits/in2 in laboratory demonstrations [1].
Roadmaps toward 40–100 Gbits/in2 have been proposed [2],
media alloys become extremely attractive. Continued grain
size scaling to diameters considerably below – nm,
[3]. At such densities, tight control of the media microstructure, would be possible allowing for densities well beyond the cur-
especially grain size, grain size dispersion and chemical isola- rently perceived 40–100 Gbits/in2 mark. This prospect has been
tion to break exchange are necessary, in order to keep the media the main driving force behind industrial and academic research
noise within acceptable bounds [4]. To avoid thermal instabili- in the area of thin film hard magnet materials, which promise
ties, a minimal stability ratio of stored magnetic energy, , minimal thermally stable grain sizes down to 2–3 nm and a more
to thermal energy, , – , is required than 10-fold potential density gain!
[2], [5], [6]. and are the anisotropy energy density and The present paper attempts to provide an overview of var-
magnetic switching volume, respectively. typically drops ious alternative high materials candidates. Specifically, re-
with higher areal density, hence higher materials are needed cent progress in the low temperature fabrication of thin L10-type
to maintain stability. Increasing , however, also increases FePt alloy and compound films with coercivities exceeding 10
the media switching field, , which is proportional to the ratio kOe, will be reported.
saturation magnetization), and cannot exceed
the write field capability of the head. The latter is believed to
II. HIGH MATERIALS
be near 5000 Oe for longitudinal and possibly twice as large
for keepered perpendicular magnetic recording. Because of A. Overview
this constraint, use of “excessively” high materials and
Table I summarizes intrinsic magnetic properties of a
aggressive scaling to much smaller grain sizes is not reasonable.
number of potential alternative media alloys, following a
similar compilation of hard magnet alloys by Klemmer et
Manuscript received July 9, 1999. D. Weller and L. Folks gratefully acknowl- al. [10]. The table contains the first order magnetocrystalline
edge the partial support of this work by AMRI and DOD/DARPA through Grant anisotropy constant , which becomes for uniaxial
MDA 972-97-1-003.
D. Weller, A. Moser, L. Folks, M. E. Best, W. Lee, M. F. Toney, and M. systems, the saturation magnetization , the anisotropy
Schwickert are with IBM Almaden Research Center, San Jose, CA 95120 field and the Curie temperature .
(e-mail: dieter@almaden.ibm.com). Further, the intrinsic domain wall width , the wall energy
J.-U. Thiele and M. F. Doerner are with IBM Storage Systems Division, San
Jose, CA 95193. and the single particle domain size as defined in
Publisher Item Identifier S 0018-9464(00)00257-0. the table caption are reported. A minimal stable grain size is
0018–9464/00$10.00 © 2000 IEEE
WELLER et al.: HIGH K MATERIALS APPROACH TO 100 Gbits/in2 11
TABLE I
PROPERTIES OF HARD MAGNETIC MATERIALS SIMILAR TO KLEMMER et al. [10], INCLUDING hcp-Co, CHEMICALLY ORDERED Co3Pt [11] AND A CONVENTIONAL
MEDIA ALLOY CoPtCr [12]. ALL THESE MATERIALS ARE CAPABLE OF SUSTAINING D 10 nm GRAIN SIZES OVER STORAGE TIMES OF 10 YEARS
computed for a “storage” time constant years using solved for 2.5 nm grains of Co-Sm or FePt structures, the write
the media stability criterion [2], [5], [6], fields of these materials would be somewhere in the vicinity of
discussed above and assuming “cubic” grains, according to 50 000–100 000 Oe.
( Generally, the write field requirement can be expressed as
erg). The materials considered are Co-alloys, tetragonal (L10)
phases of 3d–4d and 3d–5d intermetallics, and rare-earth (1)
transition metal compounds. The table has been expanded
from Klemmer’s [10] original compilation to include hcp-Co, where is a structure factor ( for 2-D random longitu-
chemically ordered Co3Pt [11] and a representative CoPtCr dinal media) and is an effective demagnetizing factor [17].
( , Ta) granular media alloy [12]. Many of these An obvious route toward alleviating the write field problem is
materials are well known bulk hard magnets, which have consequently to operate at higher , despite the caveat that
been extensively reviewed in the literature (see for example higher magnetization also increases the demagnetization field
[13]–[15]). No distinction is made at this point as to the across written bit transitions [6], [4]. Optimization, using micro-
easy axis orientation in these materials. It is assumed that magnetic calculations, results in (linear bit density dependent)
depending on the choice of substrates and/or underlayer/seed stability boundaries versus , as discussed by Charap et
structures they may be synthesized with easy axis alignment al. [5]. Such a plot is displayed in Fig. 1 to demonstrate the the-
either in-plane, for longitudinal recording or out-of-plane, for oretical potential of hard magnet materials. The dashed line in
perpendicular recording. the figure represents Charap’s 40 Gbits/in2 boundary [5] (814
Consider, e.g., Co5Sm or FePt systems. They have kfci linear density, nm bit-spacing Oe).
anisotropies in the 108 erg/cm3 regime, which are about The boundary line represents the optimal media design point, for
20 times larger than in hcp Co and 50–100 times larger than any given combination of and . Operating at “low” ,
in advanced CoPtCr media alloys. This offers stable grains i.e. below the boundary, generates stable media, but their grains
down to sizes of nm, about a are relatively large. This is nonoptimal from the noise perspec-
factor of 4 smaller than in typical 100 Gbits/in2 scenarios [2]. tive. On the other hand, operating at “high” , i.e. above the
Using simple grain counting statistics for noise control, one boundary, allows smaller grains and “quieter” media, however,
can argue that the areal density (AD) scales as AD they are not writeable, because , according to (1), exceeds
[16]. Hence, enormous densities, in the Tbit/in2 regime, would the write field capability of the head. In Charap’s modeling ap-
be possible if one only considered stability against thermal proach, a restriction Oe was applied. Improving the
agitation. One serious problem is the write field requirement of write field capabilities of heads may alleviate this restriction and
such materials, which obviously can not be ignored. Providing possibly shift the boundary upward, moving some of the hard
that all microstrucural and grain isolation problems could be magnet materials into the realm of possible applications.
12 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 36, NO. 1, JANUARY 2000
A. Background
Both from the fabrication and grain growth perspective it is
desirable to lower the transition temperature from the fcc-disor-
dered to the fct-ordered L10-phase. As part of an ongoing effort,
we have investigated the effect of composition and growth tem-
perature on the degree of long range chemical ordering (LRO) in
epitaxial, sputtered and evaporated films grown on single crys-
talline MgO (001) and MgO (110) films. Generally, higher LRO
was found in (001) oriented compared to (110) oriented films
[43]. Chemical ordering parameters up to in sput-
tered films grown at C and in evap-
orated films grown at C were found, as deduced
from X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements. The fct lattice dis-
tortion, which is responsible for the large magnetocrystalline Fig. 3. In-plane Kerr hysteresis of a 6 nm thick Fe55Pt45 film grown on Pt/SiN
anisotropy in FePt and other L10-phases, is characterized by the coated Si (001) at 380C. The observation of large coercivity of about 8 kOe is
-ratio, which was found to be as low as 0.96 for “fully” or- consistent with the presence of highly chemically ordered FePt L10 phase.
dered FePt. Here is along the (001) direction in the unit cell. It
determines the anisotropy or easy axis direction, which can be
engineered to be either out-of-plane for (001) oriented films or
in plane for (110) oriented films, as, e.g., shown in MBE growth
experiments [44].
Polycrystalline films, suitable for recording studies were fab-
ricated by electron beam co-evaporation of Fe and Pt metal on
Pt/SiN coated or thermally oxidized Si(001) substrates. The
substrates were kept at about 400 C during growth, deposition
rates were in the 0.5–1 Å/s range and the background pressure
was mbar during evaporation. In a typical deposi-
tion run, eight different samples are fabricated implying that
the films were kept (“annealed”) at C for at least one
hour. Under such conditions we obtain (111)-textured films.
XRD measurements of the structure and chemical ordering of
these films are in progress, but based on our previous experi-
ence with sputtered polycrystalline films, we expect these evap-
Fig. 4. Coercivity of 5 nm thick evaporated Fe Pt (111) films (in-plane,
orated films will be highly chemically ordered. Thickness and present work) and 50 nm thick Fe Pt (001) films (perpendicular, Gong et
composition were determined using Rutherford backscattering al. [45]).
spectrometry (RBS).
Fig. 3 shows an in-plane Kerr hysteresis loop of a 6 nm thick served that the density of {111} twins changes drastically with
Fe54Pt46 film co-evaporated onto Pt/SiN (40 nm) coated Si composition, which may be at least one of the reasons for the
(001). Large coercivity of about 8 kOe is observed indicating presently observed strong coercivity-composition dependence.
the presence of large anisotropy. The remanence ratio is From the practical perspective it is thus advantageous to
, compatible with an average -axis orientation operate in the Fe-rich regime. Fig. 5 shows measurements
of 36 ( 36 = 0.80), which is expected for (111) textured of the loop coercivity of a series of (111) textured Fe55Pt45
films. The saturation magnetization of this (Fe-rich) film was films grown on thermally oxidized Si (001) as a function of
emu/cm3 resulting in an areal moment density of the areal moment density . The data are compared with
memu/cm2. Typical 40–100 Gbits/in2 designs, on representative CoPtCrB results (lower Pt content alloy in
the other hand, require somewhat smaller in the 0.3–0.5 [4] in ( ) orientation and several 10–20 Gbits/in2 media
memu/cm2 range [2], [4]. can be adjusted by either drop- design points [1], [46]. The solid lines are fits to the data
ping the film thickness or by changing the alloy composition using the well known “superparamagnetic approach” equation
and/or third element addition.
Fig. 4 shows the result of a Fe Pt -series in which was and substituting , i.e.
dropped to 5 nm and the Pt content was varied in the range assuming that the grain diameter and the remanence ratio
. While we observe a moment reduction from do not change with film thickness . Although crude
about 1300 emu/cm3 for the Fe-rich to 950 emu/cm3 for Pt-rich and ignoring microstructural changes with film thickness,
films, the coercivity drops dramatically from about 4200 Oe to these fits are useful and can provide a rough estimate of the
less than 500 Oe. This trend is compared to similar observations anisotropy field and average grain diameter . We find
by Gong et al. [45] in 50 nm thick FePt (001) films. They ob- kOe and nm for the present Fe55Pt45
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