Method for manufacturing magnetic recording medium, magnetic recording medium, and magnetic recording and reproducing apparatus

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a magnetic recording medium having magnetically separated magnetic recording patterns, such a magnetic recording medium, and a magnetic recording and reproducing apparatus. The manufacturing method of the present invention includes: forming a continuous recording layer on a nonmagnetic substrate; then forming, on the recording layer, a mask layer including at least one element selected from the element group of Pt, Ru, and Pd in such a manner that part of the recording layer is not masked; and then performing a magnetic characteristic modifying process including exposing the unmasked part of the surface of the recording layer to reactive plasma or reactive ions produced in the reactive plasma to amorphize the part of the recording layer and to modify the magnetic characteristics of the part, so that magnetically separated magnetic recording patterns are formed.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.