Micromagnetic Modeling Study of Thermal Gradient Effect in Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR)

The performance of heat assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) is simulated using a multilayer micromagnetic model. Recording performance parameters such as signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) were simulated as a function of the vertical thermal gradient in the recording media. Simulation results show that the vertical thermal gradient in the media has to be higher than ( -28 deg /nm) in order to have no loss of SNR based on parameters used in the model. Curie temperature writing is also necessary in order to maximize the SNR.