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they pass under the gap. The data are stored

State-of-the-Art as horizontal magnetization patterns,

where the ones and zeros correspond to
the presence or absence of magnetization
reversals. It is from the in-plane, along-
track orientation of magnetization on the

Magnetic disk that the term LMR is derived. The

data is read back by measuring the stray
fields (described in the section on GMR
Heads) originating from the transitions

Hard Disk Drives between regions of opposite magnetiza-

tion (not the magnetization directly). This
analog signal is then processed to recover
the digital information. While the basic
I.R. McFadyen, E.E. Fullerton, and M.J. Carey physical processes for writing and storing
information in LMR have not changed in
any fundamental way, the read-back proc-
ess and the materials that make up the
Abstract components have changed radically.
Magnetic recording has progressed dramatically over the last 50 years, with an As areal densities have increased, the
increase of almost eight orders of magnitude in the amount of information stored per unit dimensions of various components of the
area of disk space. Two key enablers of this progress have been the recording medium recording system have, necessarily, de-
and the read-back head. This article reviews the current state of the art in multilayer thin- creased. The amount by which they de-
film longitudinal recording media and giant magnetoresistive (GMR) read heads, with crease can be estimated from basic scaling
particular emphasis on the nanostructured magnetic materials that are key to today’s laws for magnetic recording, which are
high-performance hard disk drives. the same as the scaling of any three-
dimensional magnetic system: the field
Keywords: film, layered, magnetic properties, magnetoresistance, memory. configuration and magnitudes are not
changed when all dimensions and cur-
rents are scaled by a factor s. Therefore, if
you want to increase the areal density by
Introduction s2, all dimensions in the system should, to
IBM introduced the 305 RAMAC com- storage, and reading. The system contains first order, be decreased by s. This assumes
puter in 1956. The system included the IBM a recording head, composed of separate that the magnetic properties of the mate-
350 magnetic disk drive, which had a stor- read and write heads, which is supported rials are not changed and also implies that
age capacity of 4.4 Mbytes, was the size of by a self-generating air bearing in close the current density increases by 1/s.
two large refrigerators, and weighed two proximity to the granular magnetic medium. Comparing the IBM 350 with current
tons. Today, laptop computers commonly The head is said to “fly” over the disk. The disk drives, the areal density has increased
have disk drives that can store 20–100 inductive write head is a miniature elec- by s2
5 × 107, implying that the critical di-
Gbytes and are the size of a pack of cards. tromagnet: a time-varying current in a con- mensions have scaled by s
7000. For the
This represents an increase in the areal ductor wrapped around a ferromagnetic IBM 350, the thickness of the media t and
density (number of bits per square inch of yoke provides a time-varying magnetic the height at which the head flew over the
disk surface) of almost eight orders of field in the gap of this yoke. This field, in disk were
30 µm and
20 µm, respec-
magnitude: from 0.002 Mbits/in.2 in 1956 turn, magnetizes regions of the disk as tively. Assuming simple scaling, one
to 100 Gbits/in.2 in today’s state-of-the-art
drives. Throughout this half-century of
disk drive development, the basic recording
principle—longitudinal magnetic record-
ing (LMR)—has remained the same. How-
ever, today’s high-capacity drives are nearly
the ultimate realization of this recording
scheme, and future drives will most likely
use a scheme known as perpendicular mag-
netic recording (PMR), where the magne-
tization in the bits is perpendicular to the
disk surface. As the recording industry
transitions from LMR to PMR, it is worth
reviewing two of the technologies that have
allowed this remarkable increase in stor- Figure 1. Schematic drawing of a longitudinal magnetic recording system, consisting of the
age capacity, the thin-film disk and the giant recording medium and a recording head with separate read and write elements. The
recording medium has a granular microstructure where the magnetic transition meanders
magnetoresistive (GMR) read-back head.
between the 8-nm grains, as shown in the schematic at upper right. W is the track width, t is
the thickness of the medium, SH is the stripe height, and B is the bit length. Typical values
Magnetic Recording are W
210 nm, t
14 nm, SH
100 nm, and B
30 nm. The head flies above the disk
Figure 1 illustrates the basic concepts of surface at a spacing of d
10 nm. Bits are written using an inductive head and are read
longitudinal magnetic recording: writing, back with a shielded magnetoresistive element.

MRS BULLETIN • VOLUME 31 • MAY 2006 379