Study of grain-patterned and highly ordered L1₀-FePt HAMR media using reactive molecular dynamics method

Embedded Mask Patterning (EMP) has been proposed as a cost-effective fabrication method to be capable of patterning sub-5-nm grain sizes for highly ordered L1(0)-FePt media for Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR). Understanding the etching mechanism of FePt is critical to maintaining the highly ordered L1(0) structure and low damage to magnetic grains. In this research, a reactive Molecular Dynamics (MD) model is developed to study methanol (MeOH) plasma etching on highly ordered continuous L1(0)-FePt media film. The model describes the reactive interaction mechanism between the plasma products CO/H-2 molecules and Fe/Pt atoms. It shows the dominant Fe-C interaction upon the dissociation of CO ligands leads to formation of large and volatile Fe-n-C clusters contributing to high chemical etch yield. (c) 2024 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).