Thermo-magnetic recording on a Co/Pt perpendicular film by a sharp metallic probe.

We studied a method of heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR). The recording medium is a strongly coupled Co/Pt multilayered thin film, suitable for perpendicular recording. Field emission current from a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) tip is used as the heating source. Pulse voltages of 5 V were applied to the film. Experimental results show that an average mark size of 100-120 nm was achieved, with the minimum being 45 nm. Models of domain stability and dynamic domain formation are built to quantitatively explain the experimental results. They agree well with experiments. The models give us future directions for achieving small marks for ultra-high recording density.