CoCrPt@(TiO₂,CoO) granular thin films grown on Ru/Ni_xPd_100-x/NiTa (x=20, 50, 80)

Structural, morphological and magnetic properties of CoCrPt@(TiO2,CoO) granular thin films deposited on Ru/NixPd100-x/NiTa intermediate layers were investigated as a function of the NixPd100-x composition (x = 20, 50, 80). Using a Ni20Pd80 buffer-layer leads to a significant improvement of the crystallographic texture, grain separation and easy-axis angular distribution with respect to conventional systems using Ru/NiTa as intermediate layers. As a result, a meaningful enhancement of magnetic properties (anisotropy constant, K = 4.1 x 10(5) J/m(3), out-of-plane coercivity, H-c perpendicular to = 470 kA/m, nucleation field, H-N = -115 kA/m) with respect to conventional systems (K = 3.7 x 10(5) J/m(3), H-c perpendicular to = 374 kA/m, H-N = -71.6 kA/m) was achieved, thus indicating that Ni20Pd80 can potentially be used as buffer-layer to enhance the recording density of conventional Hard Disk Drives.