Improved thermal stability of synthetic ferrimagnetic media with enhanced exchange coupling strength

The effect of the antiferromagnetic interlayer exchange coupling strength J between the initial or stabilization magnetic layer L1 and the top magnetic layer L2 on the thermal stability of synthetic ferrimagnetic media (SFM) is investigated. Enhanced J is achieved by the insertion of a thin Co-rich hexagonal close-packed layer between the Ru layer and L1, and such a structure did not change the read/write properties significantly. The contribution of the anisotropy energy of L1 to the thermal stability of SFM is improved by increasing J. However, a significant increase in the contribution of L1 to the thermal stability is achieved at relatively low J values (0.14 erg/cm2) which translate into only a 3–4% increase in the switching field H0.