Magnetic recording medium, method of manufacturing magnetic recording medium and magnetic recording reproducing apparatus

1. A perpendicular magnetic recording medium comprising:

a non-magnetic substrate; and at least

a soft magnetic underlayer,

an orientation control layer,

a magnetic recording layer and

a protective layer,

which are formed on the non-magnetic substrate in order from the bottom,

wherein the orientation control layer has a laminated structure of two or more layers comprising an intermediate layer and a seed layer which is disposed closer to the non-magnetic substrate than the intermediate layer,

the seed layer comprises two or more elements having a face-centered cubic structure, the seed layer has face-centered cubic crystal structure which (111) plane is oriented in a direction perpendicular to a substrate surface, and the seed layer has a pseudo-hexagonal structure,

a film thickness of the seed layer is equal to or greater than 3 nm and equal to or less than 10 nm,

the seed layer is formed directly on the soft magnetic underlayer, and

the soft magnetic underlayer has a soft magnetic amorphous structure.

2. The magnetic recording medium according to claim 1 , wherein the two or more elements having a face-centered cubic structure are selected from the group consisting of Cu, Ag, Au, Ni, Pd, Pt, Ir, Al, Rh, Pb and Co.

3. The magnetic recording medium according to claim 1 ,

wherein the intermediate layer comprises an alloy layer made of Ru, Re or an alloy thereof and having a hexagonal close-packed structure.

4. The magnetic recording medium according to claim 1 ,

wherein the intermediate layer comprises an alloy layer, which is made of an alloy comprising at least one element selected from elements having an fcc structure as a main component and an element selected from elements having a body-centered cubic structure; and

the intermediate layer not only has a crystal structure with (111) crystal plane orientation, but also has a layered irregular lattice resulting from the mix of the face-centered cubic structure and the body-centered cubic structure.

5. The magnetic recording medium according to claim 1 ,

wherein the intermediate layer comprises an alloy layer, which is made of an alloy material comprising at least one element selected from elements having an fcc structure as a main component and an element selected from elements having a hexagonal close-packed structure; and

the intermediate layer not only has a crystal structure with (111) crystal plane orientation, but also has a layered irregular lattice resulting from the mix of the fcc structure and the hexagonal close-packed structure.

6. The magnetic recording medium according to claim 1 ,

wherein the magnetic recording layer has a granular structure formed of a ferromagnetic crystal grain and a crystal grain boundary of non-magnetic oxide, and

the magnetic recording layer comprises a granular layer, the average grain diameter of which is equal to or less than 7.5 nm in a crystal grain diameter analysis by a transmission electron microscope.

7. The magnetic recording medium according to claim 1 ,

wherein the seed layer is made of an alloy comprising Ag and Cu, and the content of Ag is in the range of 30 to 80 at % and the content of Cu is in the range of 20 to 70 at %.

8. The magnetic recording medium according to claim 1 ,

wherein the seed layer is made of an alloy comprising Ag and Au, and the content of Ag is in the range of 20 to 70 at % and the content of Au is in the range of 30 to 80 at %.

9. The magnetic recording medium according to claim 1 ,

wherein the seed layer is made of an alloy comprising Au and Cu, and the content of Au is in the range of 30 to 80 at % and the content of Cu is in the range of 20 to 70 at %.

10. A magnetic recording reproducing apparatus comprising:

magnetic recording medium according to claim 1 ; and

a magnetic head for recording information on the magnetic recording medium and reproducing the information from the magnetic recording medium.