A perpendicular magnetic recording medium is disclosed that achieves improved recordability without deteriorating
thermal stability by reducing the switching field. A perpendicular magnetic recording medium of the invention has a first magnetic
recording layer and a second magnetic
recording layer between with is interposed a
coupling layer that ferromagnetically couples the two
layers. The first and second magnetic recording
layers satisfy an inequality Ku1T1>Ku2T2 in the case where Hk1 >Hk2 and an inequality Ku1T1<Ku2T2 in the case where Hk1<Hk2, where Hk1 and Hk2 are
anisotropy magnetic fields, Ku1 and Ku2 are uniaxial
anisotropy constants, and T1 and T2 are thicknesses of the first magnetic
recording layer and the second recording layer, respectively. An exchange
coupling energy between the magnetic recording
layers is preferably at least 5×10−3
erg / cm2. Advantageously, the
coupling layer is mainly composed of a material selected from V, Cr, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Nb, Mo, Ru, Rh, Ta, W, Re, and Ir, and has a thickness of at most 2 nm. At least one of the magnetic recording layers preferably has a granular structure.