H. GAVRILA^1,*

Abstract

The conventional magnetic recording has approached its physical limits. Further growth of the areal density is limited by the superparamagnetic effect and by the limited possibilities to further improve write heads design and pole materials in order to enhance the writing field. New technologies are needed to surpass these limits. Such an alternative is the heat–assisted magnetic recording (HAMR), which promises areal densities of more than 1 Tb/in2 . HAMR allows use of very small-grain media, required for recording at ultra-high densities, with a larger magnetic anisotropy, thus assuring a sufficient thermal stability, while the local optical heating leads to a temporary magnetic softening of the medium. The principle of HAMR and the structure of a HAMR system are discussed, as well as the requirements for the materials needed for this type of recording. An important aspect of HAMR is then analyzed: laser assisted writing provides an additional degree of freedom during writing, but it could lead to an increased thermal relaxation rate of the magnetization on the just written track or on the adjacent tracks. The possible write methods, a proposed head design, and the effects of the temperature distribution in the medium are then presented. An analytical prediction of the transition parameter on the basis of a modified Williams–Comstock model is presented. The last section summarizes the up-to-date results and the foreseeable challenges of the HAMR technology..

Keywords

Heat-assisted magnetic recording, Thermal stability, Transition parameter.

Submitted at: April 1, 2008
Accepted at: July 1, 2008

Citation

H. GAVRILA, Heat–assisted magnetic recording, Journal of Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials Vol. 10, Iss. 7, pp. 1796-1804 (2008)

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