Challenges in developing FePt L10 granular thin film media for Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR)

Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) is currently considered being the most promising future hard disk drive (HDD) recording technology for surpassing the fundamental limitations of conventional perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR). In a typical HAMR recording design, the head consists of a waveguide that delivers light from a laser diode to a plasmonic aperture or antenna located at the air-bearing surface. The plasmonic device creates an intense optical pattern in the near-field, heating the disk at the nanometer scale. This writing technique allows one to use ultrahigh anisotropy media for reduced grain size thus maintaining the requirements of thermal stability and writability [1].