Capped bit patterned media for high density magnetic recording

A capped composite patterned medium design is described which comprises an array of hard elements exchange coupled to a continuous cap layer. The role of the cap layer is to lower the write field of the individual hard element and introduce ferromagnetic exchange interactions between hard elements to compensate the magnetostatic interactions. Modeling results show significant reduction in the reversal field distributions caused by the magnetization states in the array which is important to prevent bit errors and increase achievable recording densities. (C) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.3074781]