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Title: Thermal effects on transducer material for heat assisted magnetic recording application

Abstract

Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) is a promising technology for next generation hard disk drives with significantly increased data recording capacities. In HAMR, an optical near-field transducer (NFT) is used to concentrate laser energy on a magnetic recording medium to fulfill the heat assist function. The key components of a NFT are transducer material, cladding material, and adhesion material between the cladding and the transducer materials. Since transducer materials and cladding materials have been widely reported, this paper focuses on the adhesion materials between the Au transducer and the Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} cladding material. A comparative study for two kinds of adhesion material, Ta and Cr, has been conducted. We found that Ta provides better thermal stability to the whole transducer than Cr. This is because after thermal annealing, chromium forms oxide material at interfaces and chromium atoms diffuse remarkably into the Au layer and react with Au to form Au alloy. This study also provides insights on the selection of adhesion material for HAMR transducer.

Authors:
; ; ; ;  [1]
  1. Data Storage Institute, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A-STAR), 5 Engineering Drive 1, Singapore 117608 (Singapore)
Publication Date:
OSTI Identifier:
22409940
Resource Type:
Journal Article
Journal Name:
Journal of Applied Physics
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 117; Journal Issue: 17; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Journal ID: ISSN 0021-8979
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY; ADHESION; ALUMINIUM OXIDES; ANNEALING; CHROMIUM; CLADDING; GOLD; INTERFACES; LASER RADIATION; LAYERS; MAGNETIC DISKS; MAGNETIC MATERIALS; TANTALUM; TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE; TRANSDUCERS

Citation Formats

Ji, Rong, Xu, Baoxi, Cen, Zhanhong, Ying, Ji Feng, and Toh, Yeow Teck. Thermal effects on transducer material for heat assisted magnetic recording application. United States: N. p., 2015. Web. doi:10.1063/1.4916807.
Ji, Rong, Xu, Baoxi, Cen, Zhanhong, Ying, Ji Feng, & Toh, Yeow Teck. Thermal effects on transducer material for heat assisted magnetic recording application. United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4916807
Ji, Rong, Xu, Baoxi, Cen, Zhanhong, Ying, Ji Feng, and Toh, Yeow Teck. 2015. "Thermal effects on transducer material for heat assisted magnetic recording application". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4916807.
@article{osti_22409940,
title = {Thermal effects on transducer material for heat assisted magnetic recording application},
author = {Ji, Rong and Xu, Baoxi and Cen, Zhanhong and Ying, Ji Feng and Toh, Yeow Teck},
abstractNote = {Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) is a promising technology for next generation hard disk drives with significantly increased data recording capacities. In HAMR, an optical near-field transducer (NFT) is used to concentrate laser energy on a magnetic recording medium to fulfill the heat assist function. The key components of a NFT are transducer material, cladding material, and adhesion material between the cladding and the transducer materials. Since transducer materials and cladding materials have been widely reported, this paper focuses on the adhesion materials between the Au transducer and the Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} cladding material. A comparative study for two kinds of adhesion material, Ta and Cr, has been conducted. We found that Ta provides better thermal stability to the whole transducer than Cr. This is because after thermal annealing, chromium forms oxide material at interfaces and chromium atoms diffuse remarkably into the Au layer and react with Au to form Au alloy. This study also provides insights on the selection of adhesion material for HAMR transducer.},
doi = {10.1063/1.4916807},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/22409940}, journal = {Journal of Applied Physics},
issn = {0021-8979},
number = 17,
volume = 117,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu May 07 00:00:00 EDT 2015},
month = {Thu May 07 00:00:00 EDT 2015}
}