Seed structure for perpendicular magnetic recording media
View Patent ↗A data storage medium having a seed structure formed of a first seed layer comprising a nickel alloy NiY, where Y is an element selected from Al, B, Fe, Nb, W, and Co, and a second seed layer represented by NiWAX, where A is an element selected from Al, B, Fe, Nb, and Co, and X is either B, Si, Ti, Nb, V, Cr, Ru, or an oxide, with the second seed layer being disposed on the first seed layer; and a magnetic recording layer above the seed structure. In addition, a method for manufacturing a data storage medium containing the aforementioned seed structure is also disclosed.
1. A data storage medium comprising:
a seed structure above a substrate, the seed structure being formed of a first seed layer comprising a nickel alloy NiA, and a second seed layer comprising a nickel alloy Ni 1−(m+n) A m X n , where A is one or more elements selected from the group consisting of Al, B, Fe, Nb, W, and Co, and X is an oxide, where m is a value between 0.10-0.50 and n is a value between 0.01-0.10, and wherein the second seed layer is disposed on top of the first seed layer; and
a magnetic recording layer above the seed structure.
2. The data storage medium of claim 1 wherein the nickel alloy of the first seed layer is further represented by Ni 1-p A p where p is between 0.10-0.50.
3. The data storage medium of claim 1 wherein the first seed layer has a saturation induction greater than 5 kG.
4. The data storage medium of claim 1 wherein the oxide of the second seed layer is selected from at least one oxide from the group consisting of TiO2, SiO2, CrO2, Cr2O3, Al2O3, ZrO2, Ta2O5, Nb2O5, V2O5, MgO, Mg2B2O5, MnO, WO3, HfO2, and B2O3.
5. The data storage medium of claim 1 further comprising an intermediate layer on top of the seed structure, wherein the intermediate layer includes multiple layers of ruthenium or ruthenium alloys, and wherein one of the ruthenium-containing layers is a high pressure ruthenium layer having a thickness between about 3 nm to about 12 nm.
6. The data storage medium of claim 1 wherein the seed structure has a thickness between about 3 nm to about 13 nm.
7. A data storage medium comprising:
a soft magnetic underlayer (SUL) formed over a substrate;
a seed structure above the SUL, the seed structure being formed of a first seed layer comprising a nickel alloy NiY, where Y is an element selected from the group consisting of Al, B, Fe, Nb, W, and Co, and a second seed layer comprising a nickel alloy NiWAX, where A is an element selected from the group consisting of Al, B, Fe, Nb, and Co, and X is either B, Si, Ti, Nb, V, Cr, Ru, or an oxide, and
wherein the second seed layer is disposed on top of the first seed layer, and contains one or more oxides selected from the group consisting of TiO2, SiO 2 , CrO2, Cr2O3, Al2O3, ZrO2, Ta2O5, Nb2O5, V2O5, MgO, Mg2B2O5, MnO, WO3, HfO2, and B2O3; and
a magnetic recording layer above the seed structure.
8. The data storage medium of claim 7 wherein the first seed layer is further represented by Ni 1-q Y q the value of q is between 0.10-0.50.
9. The data storage medium of claim 7 wherein the first seed layer has a saturation induction greater than 5 kG.
10. The data storage medium of claim 7 wherein the second seed layer is further represented by Ni 1−(l+h+k) W l A h X k , where l is a value between 0.01-0.10, h is a value between 0.10-0.40, and k is a value between 0.01-0.10.
11. The data storage medium of claim 7 further comprising an intermediate layer on the seed structure, wherein the intermediate layer includes multiple layers of ruthenium or ruthenium alloys, and wherein one of the ruthenium layers is a high pressure ruthenium layer having a thickness between about 3 nm to about 12 nm.
12. The data storage medium of claim 7 wherein the seed structure has a thickness between about 3 nm to about 13 nm.
13. An apparatus comprising:
a transducer head having a magnetoresistive read element; and
the data storage medium of claim 7 coupled to the transducer head.
14. A method of manufacturing a data storage medium comprising;
forming a soft under layer (SUL) above a substrate;
forming a seed structure above the SUL, the seed structure being formed of a first seed layer comprising a nickel alloy Ni 1-q Y q , where Y is an element selected from the group consisting of Al, B, Fe, Nb, W, and Co, and a second seed layer comprising a nickel alloy Ni 1−(l+h+k) W l A h X k , where A is an element selected from the group consisting of Al, B, Fe, Nb, and Co and X is either B, Si, Ti, Nb, V, Cr, Ru, or an oxide,
wherein the second seed layer is disposed on top of the first seed layer, and contains one or more oxides selected from the group consisting of TiO2, SiO2, CrO2, Cr2O3, Al2O3, ZrO2, Ta2O5, Nb2O5, V2O5, MgO, Mg2B2O5, MnO, WO3, HfO2, and B2O3; and
forming a magnetic recording layer above the seed structure.
15. The method of claim 14 wherein the seed structure has a thickness between about 3 nm to about 13 nm.
16. The method of claim 14 wherein the second seed layer is sputter deposited in a chamber maintained at a low pressure of from 3 mTorr to 30 mTorr using a NiWAX target.
17. The method of claim 14 wherein the second seed layer is reactively sputter deposited using a NiWAX target in the presence of argon and oxygen gas.
18. The method of claim 14 further comprising depositing multiple intermediate layers of ruthenium or ruthenium alloys, wherein at least one of the intermediate layers is deposited in a chamber maintained at a high pressure of from 60 mTorr to 150 mTorr.
19. The method of claim 14 wherein the recording layer is part of a perpendicular magnetic recording medium.
20. The data storage medium of claim 1 wherein the magnetic recording layer comprises a hexagonal close-packed (hcp) texture, and wherein the first seed layer and second seed layer are configured to impart the hcp texture in the magnetic recording layer.
21. The data storage medium of claim 20 wherein the hcp texture is a hcp (0002) texture.
22. The data storage medium of claim 20 wherein the first seed layer and second seed layer each comprise a (111) orientation.
23. The data storage medium of claim 1 wherein the first seed layer and second seed layer each comprise a (111) orientation.
24. The data storage medium of claim 1 wherein the first seed layer is configured to impart a face-centered cubic (111) orientation in the second seed layer.
25. A disk drive comprising:
a data storage medium; and
a head configured to read data stored in the data storage medium,
wherein the data storage medium comprises:
a seed structure above a substrate, the seed structure being formed of a first seed layer comprising a nickel alloy NiA, and a second seed layer comprising a nickel alloy Ni 1−(m+n) A m X n , where A is one or more elements selected from the group consisting of Al, B, Fe, Nb, W, and Co, and X is an oxide, where m is a value between 0.10-0.50 and n is a value between 0.01-0.10, and wherein the second seed layer is disposed on top of the first seed layer; and
a magnetic recording layer above the seed structure.
26. A disk drive comprising:
a data storage medium; and
a head configured to read data stored in the data storage medium,
wherein the data storage medium comprises:
a soft magnetic underlayer (SUL) formed over a substrate;
a seed structure above the SUL, the seed structure being formed of a first seed layer comprising a nickel alloy NiY, where Y is an element selected from the group consisting of Al, B, Fe, Nb, W, and Co, and a second seed layer comprising a nickel alloy NiWAX, where A is an element selected from the group consisting of Al, B, Fe, Nb, and Co, and X is either B, Si, Ti, Nb, V, Cr, Ru, or an oxide, and
wherein the second seed layer is disposed on top of the first seed layer, and contains one or more oxides selected from the group consisting of TiO2, SiO 2 , CrO2, Cr2O3, Al2O3, ZrO2, Ta2O5, Nb2O5, V2O5, MgO, Mg2B2O5, MnO, WO3, HfO2, and B2O3; and
a magnetic recording layer above the seed structure.