Ion beam applications for advanced magnetic disk/head technology

Full text: The race towards 20 Gb/cm2 magnetic disk technology demands innovative thin-film storage media, pre-patterning of thin-film media at a scale of tens of nm, new sensors and write heads with high spatial resolution, and thin, defect-free tribological coats to enable fly-heights of order 10 nm. We will discuss recent applications of ion beam techniques (a) to locally modify magnetic properties of multi-layer disk media e.g. [Co/Pt]n, and to identify the structural origins of ion-induced effects on magnetic behavior; (b) to impose dense bit array patterns by irradiation via a stencil mask; (c) to grow hard protective coatings that are effective at thickness < 4 nm, by ion beam treatment of adsorbed polymer precursors; and (d) to analyse interface and surface thermal diffusion mechanisms in systems of thin (< 10 nm) multiple metal layers that constitute the spin valve sensor head, leading to new interdiffusion models suited to such dimensions. Our discussion highlights a fertile field for future application and development of the physics of materials at the nanometer scale