Magnetic alloy and method for manufacturing same

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 .mu.m 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.sub.3 P and less than 10 wt. % of at least one dopant selected from the group comprising Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 and TiO.sub.2, said nucleation layer comprising grains having a mean diameter between 50 and 500 .ANG. which are separated by a non-zero mean distance of less than 50 .ANG.;
• 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 .ANG. which are separated by a non-zero mean distance of less than 50 .ANG., each grain having a boundary and being substantially surrounded at said boundary by an insulating material of thickness less than 50 .ANG., said insulating material being selected from the group comprising CoO and SiO.sub.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 .ANG. comprised of a material selected from the group comprising hydrogenated carbon and ZrO.sub.2.

A method of manufacturing a magnetic recording media exhibiting 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, comprising the steps of:

• providing a vacuum deposition system having a partial pressure of H.sub.2 O of less than 5.0.times.10.sup.-5 Torr and an inert gas pressure of less than 20.times.10.sup.-3 Torr;
• introducing into the vacuum deposition system a contributant gas in an amount of at least 0.5 vol. %;
• introducing a non-magnetic substrate into the vacuum deposition system;
• depositing directly or indirectly onto the non-magnetic substrate a nucleation layer 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;
• and
• sputter depositing onto the nucleation layer a recording 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 grains of uniform size, said grains spaced apart by a mean distance of 20 .ANG..+-.10 .ANG., said single crystallite magnetic grains having grain boundaries, and further such that said segregant compound is disposed at said grain boundaries;
• wherein elements of said contributant gas are introduced from the vacuum deposition system into the recording layer predominantly at the boundaries of the magnetic grains.