Abstract
Recently we have proposed a new room temperature preparation method for the Co-Cr perpendicular magnetic recording medium with large perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and high coercivity. In this paper, the microstructure change of the films with increasing thickness was observed by a high resolution SEM and compared with their magnetic properties.It was found that the Co-Cr film shows a dense microstructure with faint grain boundaries at the initial growing stage, but channels develop with film growth. The film with a high coercivity has a fine grained structure with a grain size of about 20nm. No segregation in grains was observed unlike that of the conventionally sputter deposited Co-Cr films.It is concluded that the magnetic separation between grains due to the developed channels is responsible for the increase in coercivity.
