675results about "Coating by sputtering" patented technology

It is intended to reduce the media noise, and to improve the recording density dependence of read output voltage. The present invention provides a perpendicular magnetic recording media and its manufacturing process, wherein a perpendicular magnetic recording medium comprises a soft magnetic underlayer film and a perpendicular magnetizing film, these films being formed on a substrate in this order, a smoothness control film such as Cr film, being inserted between the substrate and the soft magnetic underlayer film. Therefore, perpendicular orientation and surface smoothness are improved for the perpendicular magnetizing film laminated on the smooth surface of the soft magnetic underlayer film. As the perpendicular orientation is improved for the perpendicular magnetizing film, the initial layer is reduced, thereby media noise being lowered and recording density dependence of read output voltage being improved. In addition, as the surface smoothness is improved for the perpendicular magnetizing film, sliding characteristics of a recording/reproducing head is also improved, thereby this also lowering the media noise.

Provided are a magnetic disk comprising a granular magnetic recording layer which causes less noise even with a recording capacity thereof of 250 G or more bits per square inch; and a method for manufacturing the same. The magnetic disk according to the present invention comprises: a granular magnetic recording layer (20) which is formed on a disk substrate 10 directly or via an intermediate layer and which has non-magnetic regions between granular columnar particles; and an auxiliary recording layer (22) which is formed on the granular magnetic recording layer 20 and which causes exchange interaction among the granular columnar particles, wherein the auxiliary recording layer (22) contains 0.1 to 3 moles of oxygen.

It is aimed to provide a perpendicular magnetic recording medium capable of dealing with an ultra-higher recording density than before and its manufacturing method.

The present invention concerns a perpendicular magnetic recording medium including at least a seed layer made of noncrystalline ceramic, a crystalline orientation control layer and a magnetic layer made of a material mainly containing a FePt alloy in this order on a substrate. This perpendicular magnetic recording medium is suitably manufactured by forming at least the seed layer, the orientation control layer and the magnetic layer made of the material mainly containing the FePt alloy in this order on the substrate by sputtering, wherein the magnetic layer is formed at a predetermined temperature of 500° C. or less.

A stationary vacuum deposition machine for use in a method for processing substrates to make magnetic hard disks includes a series of stations and a transport. The series of stations includes an entrance station for receiving substrates into the machine and a predetermined station. The transport operates in a cycle with each cycle including a transport phase and a stationary phase. The transport causes all the substrates that are in the machine to be moved during the transport phase, and be temporarily held stationary during the stationary phase, such that during each stationary phase a predetermined one of the stations is occupied by one of the substrates while each of a plurality of others of the stations is occupied by a respective one of a plurality of others of the substrates. The machine further includes a plurality of vacuum deposition stations and a scanning beam generator. Each vacuum deposition station operates during each stationary phase such that each station causes a thin film to be deposited on a respective one of the substrates. The scanning beam generator directs a scanning beam at the substrate occupying the predetermined station while the substrate is held stationary to produce a textured pattern.

An object of the present invention is to provide a perpendicular magnetic recording medium in which each space between crystal grains of a first magnetic recording layer is so designed as to allow the layer to also have a function as a continuous layer, and a method of manufacturing a perpendicular magnetic recording medium. In a perpendicular magnetic recording medium 100 according to the present invention, a first magnetic recording layer 122a and a second magnetic recording layer 122b are ferromagnetic layers each having a granular structure in which a grain boundary part made of a non-magnetic substance is formed between crystal grains each grown in a column shape and, in the first magnetic recording layer 122a, an intergranular distance defined by an average of shortest distances between grain boundary parts each between a crystal grain and its adjacent crystal grain is equal to or shorter than 1 nm.

In a method of manufacturing a magnetic disk including at least a magnetic recording layer on a substrate 1 and used for vertical magnetic recording, in a step of forming, on the substrate 1, the magnetic recording layer composed of a ferromagnetic layer 5 having a granular structure and an exchange energy control layer 7 constituted by a laminated layer formed on the ferromagnetic layer 5, at least the exchange energy control layer 7 is formed through sputtering in an atmosphere of a rare gas having a greater mass than an argon gas. The rare gas having a greater mass than the argon gas is a krypton (Kr) gas, for example. The exchange energy control layer 7 is a laminated layer composed of a first layer containing Co or a Co-alloy and a second layer containing palladium (Pd) or platinum (Pt), for example.

A magnetic recording medium having a substrate, a first magnetic layer having a perpendicular anisotropy and a second magnetic layer having a perpendicular anisotropy, wherein the second magnetic layer contains substantially no dielectric material, (such as, but not limited to, oxides, carbides, and nitrides) is disclosed. Also disclosed is a method for manufacturing the magnetic recording medium of the embodiments of this invention.

A perpendicular magnetic recording medium has a magnetic recording layer and laminated magnetic layers composed of different materials. In a first magnetic layer of the magnetic recording layer, ferromagnetic grains are surrounded by a nonmagnetic grain boundary region composed principally of oxide and/or nitride. In a second magnetic layer of the magnetic recording layer, ferromagnetic grains are surrounded by a nonmagnetic grain boundary region composed principally of chromium. The recording medium has an intermediate layer composed of a material having hcp or fcc structure. Advantageously, a heating process is conducted after forming the first magnetic layer and before forming the second magnetic layer. The medium achieves improvement in electromagnetic conversion characteristics and simultaneously improvement in corrosion resistance to provide a perpendicular magnetic recording medium with high recording density and simultaneously high reliability.

Spent sputtering targets are refurbished by filling the depleted region of the target with new sputter material using a hot isostatic pressing or HIP'ing technique.

Provided is a nonmagnetic material particle dispersed ferromagnetic material sputtering target comprising a material including nonmagnetic material particles dispersed in a ferromagnetic material. The nonmagnetic material particle dispersed ferromagnetic material sputtering target is characterized in that all particles of the nonmagnetic material with a structure observed on the material in its polished face have a shape and size that are smaller than all imaginary circles having a radius of 2 μm formed around an arbitrary point within the nonmagnetic material particles, or that have at least two contact points or intersection points between the imaginary circles and the interface of the ferromagnetic material and the nonmagnetic material. The nonmagnetic material particle dispersed ferromagnetic material sputtering target is advantageous in that, in the formation of a film by sputtering, the influence of heating or the like on a substrate can be reduced, high-speed deposition by DC sputtering is possible, the film thickness can be regulated to be thin, the generation of particles (dust) or nodules can be reduced during sputtering, the variation in quality can be reduced to improve the mass productivity, fine crystal grains and high density can be realized, and the nonmagnetic material particle dispersed ferromagnetic material sputtering target is particularly best suited for use as a magnetic recording layer.

A perpendicular magnetic recording medium for enabling high density recording is disclosed. The perpendicular magnetic recording medium includes a substrate on which a soft magnetic underlayer, a seed layer made of a non-crystalline material, an underlayer made of Ru or an Ru alloy including Ru as a main component, and a recording layer including a first magnetic layer and a second magnetic layer. The first and second magnetic layers include a plurality of magnetic grains having easy magnetization axes in a substantially perpendicular direction with respect to the substrate surface, and first and second nonmagnetic non-soluble phases segregating the magnetic grains of the first and second magnetic layers, respectively. The first magnetic layer includes the first non-soluble phase at a first atomic concentration that is higher than a second atomic concentration of the second non-soluble phase in the second magnetic layer.

A method of fabricating a magnetic storage medium comprises: forming an underlayer on a heat sink layer; co-sputtering a magnetic material and a thermally insulating nonmagnetic material to form a recording layer on the underlayer, wherein the recording layer includes grains of the magnetic material in a matrix of the thermally insulating nonmagnetic material; and heating the recording layer to align an easy axis of magnetization of the magnetic material in a direction perpendicular to the underlayer. A magnetic storage medium fabricated using the method is also provided.

A perpendicular magnetic recording medium is disclosed that includes a recording layer having a columnar granular structure possessing an appropriate diameter distribution and uniform arrangement of magnetic particles. The perpendicular magnetic recording medium includes a substrate, and a soft-magnetic underlayer, a seed layer, an underlayer, a recording layer, a protection film, and a lubrication layer stacked on the substrate in order. The underlayer includes granular crystals formed from Ru or a Ru alloy and interstices separating the granular crystals from each other so as to isolate individual granular crystals. A continuing film formed from Ru or Ru alloys may be provided below the underlayer.

A magnetic recording medium comprises a magnetic recording layer 63 which is formed by using an ordered alloy containing B on a substrate 1 containing an amorphous component. A part of B in the ordered alloy is segregated in a grain boundary, and thus the magnetic interaction, which acts between magnetic grains, can be reduced. Accordingly, it is possible to form fine and minute magnetic domains in the magnetic recording layer 63, and it is possible to reduce the medium noise as well. The temperature, at which the substrate is heated during the film formation of the magnetic recording layer 63, can be suppressed to be low, because the ordering temperature for the ordered alloy containing B is lower than those of ordered alloys not containing B. Therefore, it is possible to use a substrate made of glass which is suitable for the mass production. The magnetic recording layer 63 is also excellent in thermal stability because of the use of the ordered alloy having high magnetic anisotropy. According to the present invention, it is possible to provide the magnetic recording medium for high density recording which is excellent in thermal stability and which involves low medium noise.

Embodiments of the invention provide a perpendicular magnetic recording medium improved for fly ability, high in read signal quality, and capable of suppressing magnetic decay of recorded magnetization to be caused by stray fields. In one embodiment, a perpendicular recording layer is formed over a substrate with a soft magnetic underlayer therebetween, then an amorphous or nano-crystalline layer is formed between the substrate and the soft magnetic underlayer. The soft magnetic underlayer includes first and second amorphous soft magnetic layers, as well as a nomnagnetic layer formed between those first and second amorphous soft magnetic layers. The first and second amorphous soft magnetic layers are given uniaxial anisotropy in the radial direction of the substrate respectively and coupled with each other antiferromagnetically.

A magnetic recording medium based on the perpendicular magnetic recording system has a substrate which is formed of a non-magnetic material, a soft magnetic back layer which is formed of a soft magnetic material and which is formed on the substrate, an underlayer which is formed on the soft magnetic back layer, and a recording layer which is formed of an alloy magnetic material which is mainly composed of CoPtCr and contains an oxide, and which is formed on the underlayer. The recording layer is formed of two or more magnetic layers having different oxide contents, and the layer, which is included in the two or more magnetic layers for constructing the recording layer and which is provided on a side nearest to the underlayer, has the highest oxide content in the recording layer. The magnetic recording medium has more excellent magnetic characteristics with less medium noise.

An underlying layer is formed of Cr or the like on a glass substrate, and a magnetic layer is formed on the underlying layer by simultaneously sputtering a magnetic substance and a non-magnetic substance that does not form a solid solution with the magnetic substance in an atmosphere having a pressure of 30 mTorr to 75 mTorr. The magnetic recording medium comprises clusters, each of which is formed of aggregated magnetic grains, and a non-magnetic substance between the clusters. Each magnetic grain has a grain diameter of 5 nm to 20 nm. An average gap between the clusters is 1.5 nm to 5 nm. Thus, the present invention can provide a magnetic recording medium having a high S/N ratio that is suitable for high density recording.

The SMNR of a granular perpendicular recording medium is significantly enhanced by incorporating TiO₂ at the grain boundaries of the magnetic alloy layer. Embodiments include granular perpendicular recording media comprising CoPt alloys containing 0.1 to 15 at. % TiO₂ and a molar ratio of Pt:Co of up to 0.5.

A sintered compact sputtering target is provided and contains Co and Cr as metal components and includes oxides dispersed in the structure formed of the metal components. The structure of the sputtering target has a region (A) containing Co oxides dispersed in Co and a region (D) containing Cr oxides in a periphery of the region (A). In addition a method of producing the above referenced sintered compact sputtering target is provided and includes the steps of mixing a powder prepared by pulverizing a sintered compact containing Co oxide dispersed in Co, a Co powder, and a Cr power and pressure-sintering the resulting powder mixture to provide a sputtering target.

The present invention relates to a method for forming a silicon oxide nanopattern, in which the method can be used to easily form a nanodot or nanohole-type nanopattern, and a metal nanopattern formed by using the same can be properly applied to a next-generation magnetic recording medium for storage information, etc., a method for forming a metal nanopattern, and a magnetic recording medium for information storage using the same.

The method for forming a silicon oxide nanopattern includes the steps of forming a block copolymer thin film including specific hard segments and soft segments containing a (meth)acrylate-based repeating unit on silicon oxide of a substrate; conducting orientation of the thin film; selectively removing the soft segments from the block copolymer thin film; and conducting reactive ion etching of silicon oxide using the block copolymer thin film from which the soft segments are removed, as a mask to form a silicon oxide nanodot or nanohole pattern.