High‐density recording characteristics of perpendicular magnetic recording with sliding‐contact hard disk system

High linear recording density by combining a single‐pole magnetic head and Co‐Cr/Ni‐Fe double‐layer medium in a perpendicular magnetic recording hard disk drive is discussed. The present perpendicular magnetic recording system adopts a sliding contact head‐disk interface suitable for high‐density recording. A spacing as small as 30 nm between a head and a medium is obtained, measured by an optical interference method. Attaining such a small spacing promises superiority of the sliding contact head. An attempt is made to fabricate a composite head (= separate configuration of read/write head) to realize high resolution. This composite head is designed to maintain an important feature of saturation recording in the perpendicular magnetic recording scheme. A computer simulation analysis of the head‐disk interaction shows that a stronger interaction gives rise to a better resolution for a single‐pole head. In view of those results, heads and media with various Co‐Cr thicknesses are fabricated. A high D₅₀ value of 170 kFRPI and a good overwrite performance better than ‐30 dB are demonstrated.