Method of protecting a magnetic layer of a magnetic recording medium

A method of protecting a surface of a magnetic layer of a magnetic recording medium comprising:

• forming a corrosion protection layer directly on the magnetic layer, the corrosion protection layer comprising a two-dimensional (2D) material, wherein the forming is by laser-based chemical vapour deposition (laser-based CVD), wherein the laser-based CVD comprises injecting a gas into a vacuum chamber comprising the magnetic recording medium, dissociating bonds of the gas with energy of light from a pulsed laser beam having a wavelength of 190-400 nm to generate at least one decomposed species, and forming the corrosion protection layer from the at least one resulting decomposed species moving towards and growing on the magnetic layer, a fluence of the pulsed laser beam being such that a temperature of the magnetic layer is below 300° C.