Interlayers for magnetic recording media
View Patent ↗Embodiments of the present invention include a recording medium comprising: a hard magnetic recording layer and an interlayer disposed under the hard magnetic recording layer, wherein the interlayer comprises an upper layer of Ru-based alloy and a lower layer of RuCo or ReCo alloy. Generally for embodiments of the present invention, the lower layer of RuCo or ReCo alloy is formed over a seed layer using a low-pressure sputter process, and the upper layer of Ru-based alloy is formed over the lower layer using a high-pressure sputter process.
1. A recording medium comprising:
a hard magnetic recording layer;
an upper layer of an interlayer disposed under the hard magnetic recording layer, the upper layer comprising a Ru-based alloy; and
a lower layer of the interlayer disposed under the upper layer, the lower layer comprising a ReCo alloy;
wherein the lower layer of the interlayer comprises Re 100-X —Co X , where X is between 20 and 60.
2. The recording medium of claim 1 , further comprising an orientation control layer disposed under the lower layer of the interlayer.
3. The recording medium of claim 2 , wherein the orientation control layer comprises a NiW alloy, a NiWAl alloy, or a NiWAlFe alloy.
4. The recording medium of claim 2 , further comprising a seed layer disposed under the orientation control layer.
5. The recording medium of claim 1 , wherein the lower layer of the interlayer has been deposited by way of a low-pressure sputtering process.
6. The recording medium of claim 5 , wherein the lower layer of the interlayer has been deposited using Ar gas at a sputter pressure of approximately 1 to 20 mTorr.
7. The recording medium of claim 1 , wherein the upper layer of the interlayer has been deposited by way of a high-pressure sputtering process.
8. The recording medium of claim 7 , wherein the upper layer of the interlayer has been deposited using Ar gas at a sputter pressure of approximately 40 to 100 mTorr.
9. The recording medium of claim 1 , wherein the recording medium is included in a recording device comprising a housing containing a recording head and the recording medium, the recording head for reading magnetic signals from, and writing magnetic signals to, the recording medium.
10. A method of manufacturing a recording medium, comprising:
forming a first layer of an interlayer, the first layer comprising a ReCo alloy;
forming a second layer of the interlayer over the first layer, the second layer comprising a Ru-based alloy; and
forming a hard magnetic recording layer over the interlayer;
wherein the first layer of the interlayer comprises Re 100-X —Co X , where X is between 20 and 60.
11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising forming an orientation control layer before forming the first layer of the interlayer over the orientation control layer.
12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the orientation control layer comprises a NiW alloy, a NiWAl alloy, or a NiWAlFe alloy.
13. The method of claim 11 , further comprising forming a seed layer before forming the orientation control layer over the seed layer.
14. The method of claim 10 , wherein forming the first layer of an interlayer comprises depositing the first layer using a low-pressure sputtering process.
15. The method of claim 14 , wherein using the low-pressure sputtering process comprises using Ar gas at a sputter pressure of approximately 1 to 20 mTorr.
16. A method of manufacturing a recording medium, comprising:
forming a first layer of an interlayer, the first layer comprising a ReCo alloy;
forming a second layer of the interlayer over the first layer, the second layer comprising a Ru-based alloy; and
forming a hard magnetic recording layer over the interlayer,
wherein forming the second layer of the interlayer comprises depositing the second layer over the first layer of the interlayer using a high-pressure sputtering process,
wherein using the high-pressure sputtering process comprises using Ar gas at a sputter pressure of approximately 40 to 100 mTorr.