Model of advanced recording media : The angular dependence of the coercivity including the effect of exchange interaction

We use a micromagnetic model based on the kinetic Monte-Carlo approach to investigate theoretically the magnetic properties of advanced recording media. The model is employed to examine the impact of the magnetostatic and exchange interaction between grains of realistic perpendicular recording media on the angular-dependent coercivity since the exchange field between grains is an important factor in recording performance. The micromagnetic model allows to take the easy axis distribution and the exchange interaction between grains into account. The results confirm the importance of exchange interaction since the variation of coercivity with angle between the applied field and the orientation of easy axis which is perpendicular to the film plane, (θ) is seen to broaden with decreasing exchange field. We show that a two-stage fitting procedure involving the separate determination of the exchange field and easy axis dispersion provides a useful tool for the characterization of media for perpendicular recording and heat assisted recording. We find excellent agreement between previous experimental results and the simulations including exchange interactions leading to estimate of the exchange coupling and easy axis dispersion

Granular micromagnetic model for perpendicular recording media : Quasi-static properties and media characterisation

Granular magnetic recording media with perpendicular anisotropy are the basis of information storage in hard drive. This is the case for current media and future technologies such as heat assisted magnetic recording, microwave assisted magnetic recording and heated dots. It is therefore important to understand the common methods of media characterisation, which often use quasi-static magnetic measurements. A granular micromagnetic model based on the kinetic Monte Carlo approach is developed to investigate the timescales relevant to these measurements. The model is used to investigate the effects of the microstructure and the intergranular interactions on the magnetic properties including the angular dependence of the magnetisation and the time dependence of the coercivity. The latter is shown to be strongly dependent on intergranular interactions

Hybrid Design for Advanced Magnetic Recording Media : Combining Exchange-Coupled Composite Media with Coupled Granular Continuous Media

In order to enhance the performance of advanced granular recording media and understand the physics behind the mechanism of the reversal process, an atomistic spin-dynamics simulation is used to investigate theoretically the magnetic properties and the magnetization-reversal behavior for a composite media design. This model allows us to investigate the effect of the magnetostatic interaction and inter- and intralayer exchange coupling for a realistic system. The composite granular medium investigated consists of hard and soft composite layers in which the grains are well segregated with a continuous capping layer deposited to provide uniform exchange coupling. We present a detailed calculation aimed to reveal the reversal mechanism. In particular, the angular dependence of the critical field is investigated to understand the switching process. The calculations show a complex reversal mechanism driven by the magnetostatic interaction. It is also demonstrated, at high sweep rates consistent with the recording process, that thermal effects lead to a significant and irreducible contribution to the switching field distribution

Temperature dependence of spin-transport properties and spin torque in a magnetic nanostructure

The study and understanding of spin-transport mechanisms including thermal fluctuation are required for the development and design of spintronic devices. In this paper, we present an approach to investigate the temperature dependence of spin-transport behavior within the magnetic structure by using the generalized spin accumulation model. The temperature affects not only the magnetization orientation, but also the spin-transport properties. Its effect on transport parameters can be taken into account by considering the spin-dependent resistivity at any finite temperature. This leads to the calculation of temperature-dependent spin-transport parameters and eventually allows the calculation of the thermal effects on spin accumulation, spin current, and spin torque. It is observed that increasing temperature is likely to decrease the value of key transport parameters relevant to the magnitude of spin torque. This study demonstrates the importance of thermal effects on spin-transport behavior which needs to be considered for spin-transfer torque based device design with high performance

Heusler-alloy-based magnetoresistive sensor with synthetic antiferromagnet

Heusler alloy has been widely utilized in magnetoresistive sensors to enhance the device performance. In this work, we theoretically investigate the performance of Heusler-alloy-based magnetoresistive sensors with a synthetic antiferromagnet (SAF) layer. The atomistic model combined with the spin accumulation model will be used in this work. The former is used to construct the reader stack and investigate the magnetization dynamics in the system. The latter is employed to describe the spin transport behavior at any position of the structure. We first perform simulations of the exchange bias (EB) phenomenon in the IrMn/Co2FeSi (CFS) system providing a high EB field. Then, a realistic reader stack of IrMn/CFS/Ru/CFS/Ag/CFS is constructed via an atomistic model. Subsequently, the resistance-area product (RA) and magnetoresistance (MR) ratio of the reader can be calculated by using the spin accumulation model. As a result of the spin transport behavior in the Heusler-alloy-based reader stack including SAF structure at 0 K, an enhancement of the MR ratio up to 120% and RA < 40 mΩ · µm2 can be observed. This study demonstrates the important role of the Heusler alloy and SAF layer in the development of magnetoresistive sensors for the application of readers in hard disk drives with an areal density beyond 2 Tb in−2

Models of advanced recording systems: A multi-timescale micromagnetic code for granular thin film magnetic recording systems.

Micromagnetic modelling provides the ability to simulate large magnetic systems reliably without the computational cost limitation imposed by atomistic modelling. Through micromagnetic modelling it is possible to simulate systems consisting of thousands of grains over a time range of nanoseconds to years, depending upon the solver used. Here we present the creation and release of an open-source multi-timescale micromagnetic code combining three key solvers: Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert; Landau-Lifshitz-Bloch; Kinetic Monte Carlo. This code, called MARS (Models of Advanced Recording Systems), is capable of accurately simulating the magnetisation dynamics in large and structurally complex single- and multi-layered granular systems as is shown by comparison to established atomistic simulation results. The short timescale simulations are achieved for systems far from and close to the Curie point via the implemented Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert and Landau-Lifshitz-Bloch solvers respectively. This enables read/write simulations for general perpendicular magnetic recording and also state of the art heat assisted magnetic recording (HAMR). The long timescale behaviour is simulated via the Kinetic Monte Carlo solver, enabling investigations into signal-to-noise ratio and data longevity. The combination of these solvers opens up the possibility of multi-timescale simulations within a single software package. For example the entire HAMR process from initial data writing and data read back to long term data storage is possible via a single simulation using MARS. The use of atomistic parameterisation for the material input of MARS enables highly accurate material descriptions which provide a bridge between atomistic simulation and real world experimentation. Thus MARS is capable of performing simulations for all aspects of recording media research and development. This ranges from material characterisation and optimisation to system design and implementation. The object orientated nature of MARS is structured to facilitate quick and simple development and easy implementation of user defined custom simulation types which can utilise either timescale or a combination of both timescales. Program summary: Program title: MARS CPC Library link to program files: https://doi.org/10.17632/8mx7cndcdx.1 Developer's repository link: https://bitbucket.org/EwanRannala/mars/ Code Ocean capsule: https://codeocean.com/capsule/2549929 Licensing provisions: MIT Programming language: C++ Supplementary material: MARS testing methodology (PDF), HAMR simulation example video. Nature of problem: A combined model that enables the complete modelling of magnetic recording processes at elevated temperatures covering all time scales from writing (nanoseconds) up to long term data storage (years). The model must also accurately describe the granular nature of the recording media as grain sizes are reduced to a few nanometres. Solution method: Short timescale behaviours are captured via the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert and Landau-Lifshitz-Bloch solvers for low and high temperature systems respectively. The long time scale behaviours are captured via a kinetic Monte Carlo solver. To enable complex models which account for mixed timescale behaviours the solvers are implemented as a single class structure which allows for dynamic solver selection. The granular structure is generated via a Laguerre-Voronoi tessellation with a custom implemented packing algorithm to produce highly realistic grain size distributions. Complex thermal dependencies of materials can be incorporated via atomistic parameterisation forming a multi-timescale model of the material

Temperature driven α\alpha to β\beta phase-transformation in Ti, Zr and Hf from first principles theory combined with lattice dynamics

Lattice dynamical methods used to predict phase transformations in crystals typically deal with harmonic phonon spectra and are therefore not applicable in important situations where one of the competing crystal structures is unstable in the harmonic approximation, such as the bcc structure involved in the hcp to bcc martensitic phase transformation in Ti, Zr and Hf. Here we present an expression for the free energy that does not suffer from such shortcomings, and we show by self consistent {\it ab initio} lattice dynamical calculations (SCAILD), that the critical temperature for the hcp to bcc phase transformation in Ti, Zr and Hf, can be effectively calculated from the free energy difference between the two phases. This opens up the possibility to study quantitatively, from first principles theory, temperature induced phase transitions.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Micromagnetic model of exchange bias : Effects of structure and AF easy axis dispersion for IrMn/CoFe bilayers

A micromagnetic model of an exchange bias bilayer is used to examine the impact of the physical structure and the easy axis dispersion of the antiferromagnetic (AF) layer on the exchange bias field (HEB) in an IrMn/CoFe system. Because of the different timescales, the magnetization dynamics of the IrMn and CoFe layers are modelled using respectively a kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) approach and Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert (LLG) equation. The easy axis dispersion is modelled using a Gaussian distribution. The calculations show that HEBincreases with increasing IrMn thickness and grain size, in agreement with experimental work. Moreover, the model allows the visualization of the switching process at the micromagnetic level to reveal the reversal mechanism. We find that the effect of AF easy axis distribution not only strongly affects the reduction of HEBbut also drives non-coherent behaviour in the reversal mechanism. This confirms that the easy axis distribution is an important factor with strong impact on the magnetic properties and exchange bias field of an exchange bias system

HAMR switching dynamics and the magnetic recording quadrilemma

We investigate the dynamical switching process of Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) by numerical calculations of switching probability using an atomistic model. Calculations show that at the elevated write temperature of HAMR there is a loss of information arising from ’backswitching’: a thermodynamic phenomenon which comes into play when the ratio of the Zeeman energy to the thermal energy is insufficiently large to completely stabilise the switched direction. We consider the special case of Heated Dot Magnetic Recording, where a reduction of switching probability can be related to a bit error rate. We show that the backswitching becomes more pronounced at faster write times. Also, we show that in the case of current recording media, based on the binary alloy FePt, backswitching will be a more stringent limitation on recording density than the usually assumed thermal stability criterion

Magnetization dynamics of granular heat-assisted magnetic recording media by means of a multiscale model

Heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology represents the most promising candidate to replace the current perpendicular recording paradigm to achieve higher storage densities. To better understand HAMR dynamics in granular media we need to describe accurately the magnetization dynamics up to temperatures close to the Curie point. To this end we propose a multiscale approach based on the Landau-Lifshitz-Bloch (LLB) equation of motion parametrized using atomistic calculations. The LLB formalism describes the magnetization dynamics at finite temperature and allows us to efficiently simulate large system sizes and long time scales. Atomistic simulations provide the required temperature dependent input quantities for the LLB equation, such as the equilibrium magnetization and the anisotropy and can be used to capture the detailed magnetization dynamics. The multiscale approach makes it possible to overcome the computational limitations of atomistic models in dealing with large systems, such as a recording track, while incorporating the basic physics of the HAMR process. We investigate the magnetization dynamics of a single FePt grain as a function of the properties of the temperature profile and applied field and test the LLB results against atomistic calculations. Our results prove the appropriateness and potential of the approach proposed here where the granular model is able to reproduce the atomistic simulations and capture the main properties of a HAMR medium