Magnetic alloy and method for manufacturing same

Claim 2

A magnetic recording media, comprising: a non-magnetic substrate; a nucleation layer, formed on said non-magnetic substrate, comprising a compound of Ni and P and at least one dopant selected from the group comprising oxides and nitrides of Al, Hf, Si, Ta, Ti, and Zr; a recording layer, formed on said nucleation layer, comprising a CoPt-based alloy and at least one segregant compound selected from the group comprising oxides and nitrides having a bond strength of greater than 90 Kcal/mol., such that the CoPt-based alloy predominantly forms single crystallite magnetic gains of uniform size, said single crystallite magnetic grains having grain boundaries, and further such that said segregant compound is disposed at said grain boundaries; said recording layer further comprising elemental nitrogen or elemental oxygen at the boundaries of the magnetic grains; said single crystallite magnetic grains being of a non-zero mean diameter of 500 Å or less, and spaced apart from one another by between 5 Å and 50 Å such that said magnetic recording media exhibits a coercivity of at least 1500 Oe, a coercive squareness and remanent coercive squareness of at least 0.8 each, and a switching field distribution of less than 0.2.

Claim 3

The magnetic recording media of claim 1, wherein said single crystallite magnetic grains are spaced apart by a mean distance of 20 ű10 Å.

Claim 4

The magnetic recording media of claim 2, wherein a layer of insulating material having a thickness of at least 10 Å is disposed between pairs of adjacent single crystallite magnetic grains.

Claim 5

The magnetic recording media of claim 1, wherein the platinum content of the recording layer is less than or equal to 14 at. %, and the Mrt of the recording layer is 2.5 memu/cm 2 .

Claim 6

The magnetic recording media of claim 1, wherein the platinum content of the recording layer is less than 18 at. %, and the Mrt of the recording layer is 1.0 memu/m 2 .

Claim 7

The magnetic recording media of claim 1, wherein the dopant content of the nucleation layer is less than 10%.

Claim 8

The magnetic recording media of claim 1, wherein the media includes only a single magnetic recording layer.

Claim 9

The magnetic recording media of claim 1, wherein the segregant compound is selected from the group comprising oxides and nitrides of As, Co, Cr, Dy, Gd, La, Lu, Ni, Os, Pm, Ru, Re, Sc, Se, Si, Sm, Sn, Ta, Tb, Th, Ti, Tm, U, V, W, Y, and Zr having a bond strength of greater than 90 Kcal/mol.

Claim 10

The magnetic recording media of claim 5, wherein the mean diameter of the single crystallite magnetic grains is less than 100 Å.

Claim 11

The magnetic recording media of claim 6, wherein the compound of Ni and P of the nucleation layer contains nitrogen in an amount less than 10%.

Claim 12

The magnetic recording media of claim 6, wherein the compound of Ni and P of the nucleation layer contains oxygen in an amount less than 10%.

Claim 13

A vacuum deposition target for sputter deposition of a nucleation layer material onto a substrate, comprising the mixture of a compound of Ni and P with at least one dopant selected from the group comprising oxides and nitrides of Al, Hf, Si, Ta, Ti, and Zr, and inevitable impurities.

Claim 14

A vacuum deposition target for sputter deposition of a nucleation layer material onto a substrate, comprising the mixture of a compound of Ni and P with at least one dopant selected from the group comprising oxides and nitrides of Al, Hf, Si, Ta, Ti, and Zr, and inevitable impurities.

Claim 15

A vacuum deposition apparatus including the vacuum deposition target of claim 12, further comprising a vacuum deposition target used for sputter deposition of a magnetic recording layer material, comprising a CoPt-based alloy and at least one segregant compound selected from the group comprising oxides and nitrides having a bond strength of greater than 90 Kcal/mol., and inevitable impurities.

Claim 16

The vacuum deposition apparatus of claim 13, wherein the segregant compound is selected from the group comprising oxides and nitrides of As, Co, Cr, Dy, Gd, La, Lu, Ni, Os, Pm, Ru, Re, Sc, Se, Si, Sm, Sn, Ta, Tb, Th, Ti, Tm, U, V, W, Y, and Zr having a bond strength of greater than 90 Kcal/mol.

Claim 17

A magnetic recording media for magnetically storing data, comprising: a non-magnetic substrate; an electroless plated NiP layer formed directly on said substrate having a thickness between 5 and 15 μm to which a selected texture has been applied; a sputtered amorphous nucleation layer formed directly on said electroless plated NiP layer, said nucleation layer of a thickness between 5 and 100 nm, comprising a mixture of Ni 3 P and less than 10 wt. % of at least one dopant selected from the group comprising Al 2 O 3 and TiO 2 , said nucleation layer comprising grains having a mean diameter between 50 and 500 Å which are separated by a non-zero mean distance of less than 50 Å; a sputtered magnetic recording layer formed directly on said nucleation layer, said recording layer comprising an alloy of Co, Pt, and at least one element selected from the group comprising B, Cr, Ni, Ta, and Ti, said recording layer comprising grains whose size and spacing are determined by the size and spacing of the grains of said nucleation layer, the grains of said recording layer having a mean diameter between 50 and 500 Å which are separated by a non-zero mean distance of less than 50 Å, each grain having a boundary and being substantially surrounded at said boundary by an insulating material of thickness less than 50 Å, said insulating material being selected from the group comprising CoO and SiO 2 , said recording layer further comprising a nitride of at least one element selected from the group comprising Co, B, Cr, Ni, Ta, and Ti; and a sputtered protective overcoat layer formed directly on said recording layer of thickness less than 300 Å comprised of a material selected from the group comprising hydrogenated carbon and ZrO 2 .

Claim 18

A magnetic recording media for magnetically storing data, comprising: a non-magnetic substrate; an electroless plated NiP layer formed directly on said substrate having a thickness between 5 and 15 μm to which a selected texture has been applied; a sputtered amorphous nucleation layer formed directly on said electroless plated NiP layer, said nucleation layer of a thickness between 5 and 100 nm, comprising a mixture of Ni 3 P and less than 10 wt. % of at least one dopant selected from the group comprising Al 2 O 3 and TiO 2 , said nucleation layer comprising grains having a mean diameter between 50 and 500 Å which are separated by a non-zero mean distance of less than 50 Å; a sputtered magnetic recording layer formed directly on said nucleation layer, said recording layer comprising an alloy of Co, Pt, and at least one element selected from the group comprising B, Cr, Ni, Ta, and Ti, said recording layer comprising grains whose size and spacing are determined by the size and spacing of the grains of said nucleation layer, the grains of said recording layer having a mean diameter between 50 and 500 Å which are separated by a non-zero mean distance of less than 50 Å, each grain having a boundary and being substantially surrounded at said boundary by an insulating material of thickness less than 50 Å, said insulating material being selected from the group comprising CoO and SiO 2 , said recording layer further comprising a nitride of at least one element selected from the group comprising Co, B, Cr, Ni, Ta, and Ti; and a sputtered protective overcoat layer formed directly on said recording layer of thickness less than 300 Å comprised of a material selected from the group comprising hydrogenated carbon and ZrO 2 .

Claim 21

The method of claim 16, wherein the contributant gas is a gas selected from the group comprising O, N, CO, CO 2 , NO, N 2 O.

Claim 22

The method of claim 16, further comprising the step of introducing a selected amount of H 2 O into the vacuum deposition system such that the H 2 O partially decomposes and serves as a source of elemental oxygen, and further such that said recording layer is formed to incorporate said element oxygen at the boundaries of the magnetic grains.

Claim 23

The method of claim 16, wherein the vacuum deposition of said nucleation and said recording layers comprises sputtering from sputtering targets, and further wherein the sputtering target from which the recording layer is sputtered has segregant added thereto, and further said sputtering target from which the recording layer is sputtered has an oxygen content of below 2000 ppm before said addition of segregant.

Claim 24

The method of claim 16, wherein the segregant compound is selected from the group comprising oxides and nitrides of As, Co, Cr, Dy, Gd, La, Lu, Ni, Os, Pm, Ru, Re, Sc, Se, Si, Sm, Sn, Ta, Tb, Th, Ti, Tm, U, V, W, Y, and Zr having a bond strength of greater than 90 Kcal/mol.

Claim 25

A magnetic recording media formed by the method of claim 16.