Magnetic recording medium and method of manufacturing the same

#1. Field

#One embodiment of the present invention relates to a magnetic recording medium capable of recording at high density and a method of manufacturing the magnetic recording medium.

#2. Description of the Related Art

#A general architecture that implements the various feature of the invention will now be described with reference to the drawings. The drawings and the associated descriptions are provided to illustrate embodiments of the invention and not to limit the scope of the invention.

#FIG. 1 is a plan view of a discrete track medium.

#FIG. 2 is a plan view of a bit patterned medium.

#Various embodiments according to the invention will be described hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings. In general, according to one embodiment of the invention, there is provided a magnetic recording medium comprising: magnetic patterns made of a ferromagnetic recording layer containing Co; and a nonmagnetic layer which separates the magnetic patterns and has a lower Co concentration than the magnetic patterns.

#According to another embodiment of the invention, there is provided a method of manufacturing a magnetic recording medium comprising: depositing a ferromagnetic recording layer containing Co on a substrate; and selectively removing Co from a part of the ferromagnetic recording layer to form magnetic patterns made of the ferromagnetic recording layer containing Co and a nonmagnetic layer which separates the magnetic patterns and has a lower Co concentration than the magnetic patterns.

#FIG. 1 shows a plan view of a discrete track recording medium (DTR medium) along the circumferential direction. As shown in FIG. 1, servo zones 10 and data zones 20 are alternately formed along the circumferential direction of the medium. The servo zone 10 includes a preamble section 11, an address section 12 and a burst section 13. The data zone 20 includes discrete tracks 21.