Characteristics of thermally assisted magnetic recording in granular perpendicular media

The effect of thermally assisted magnetic recording using granular perpendicular media with a single-pole-trimmed head has been investigated. A read/write experiment using a spin stand in which the media were heated by laser irradiation demonstrated that the track average amplitude strongly depends on both the position of the write head relative to the center of the laser spot in the down-track direction and on the laser power. Although the signal-to-noise ratio increased with the coercivity of the media, the increment was small; this is thought to be caused by an increase in the switching field distribution of the media with temperature. Our results suggest that the magnetic constant of the media must be optimized with respect to the temperature of writing in order for high-density thermally assisted magnetic recording to be realized.