The magnetic recording medium includes: a non-magnetic support; and a non-magnetic layer including a non-magnetic powder and a magnetic layer including a ferromagnetic powder on the non-magnetic support in this order, in which a vertical squareness ratio is 0.70 to 1.00, a center line average roughness Ra measured regarding a surface of the magnetic layer with an atomic force microscope is equal to or smaller than 2.5 nm, and an interface variation rate between the magnetic layer and the non-magnetic layer in a cross section image obtained by imaging with a scanning electron microscope is equal to or less than 2.5%.

In the magnetic recording medium, a number distribution A of a plurality of bright regions, based on equivalent circle diameters thereof, in a binarized image of a secondary electron image obtained by imaging a surface of the magnetic layer by a scanning electron microscope at an acceleration voltage of 5 kV and a number distribution B of a plurality of dark regions, based on equivalent circle diameters thereof, in a binarized image of a secondary electron image obtained by imaging a surface of the magnetic layer by a scanning electron microscope at an acceleration voltage of 2 kV respectively satisfy a predetermined number distribution.

The magnetic tape includes a non-magnetic support, and a magnetic layer including a ferromagnetic powder. A rate of change (AlFeSil abrasion value 2/AlFeSil abrasion value 1) in AlFeSil abrasion value measured on a surface of the magnetic layer before and after storage of the magnetic tape in an environment of a temperature of 23° C. and a relative humidity of 50% is 0.7 or more.

The magnetic recording medium includes a non-magnetic support; and a magnetic layer including a ferromagnetic powder, in which an isoelectric point of a surface zeta potential of the magnetic layer after pressing the magnetic layer at a pressure of 70 atm is equal to or less than 3.8.

The magnetic recording medium includes a non-magnetic support; and a magnetic layer including a ferromagnetic powder, in which one or more kinds of component selected from the group consisting of a fatty acid and a fatty acid amide are included in a portion of the magnetic layer side on the non-magnetic support, and a C—H derived C concentration calculated from a C—H peak surface area ratio in C1s spectra obtained by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic analysis performed on a surface of the magnetic layer at a photoelectron take-off angle of 10 degrees, after pressing the magnetic layer at a pressure of 70 atm is 45 atom % or more.

The magnetic recording medium includes a non-magnetic support; and a magnetic layer including a ferromagnetic powder, in which the ferromagnetic powder is an ε-iron oxide powder having an average particle size of 9.0 nm to 20.0 nm, and in the ε-iron oxide powder, a content of particles having a particle size smaller than 8.0 nm is less than 20.0% by mass, a content of particles having a particle size smaller than 6.0 nm is less than 5.0% by mass, and a content of particles having a particle size greater than 25.0 nm is less than 20.0% by mass.

An object is to suppress or prevent a dimensional change of a magnetic recording tape.

The present technology provides a magnetic recording tape having a layer structure including a magnetic layer, a base layer, and a back layer in this order, in which a reinforcing layer containing a metal or a metal oxide is disposed on either a surface of the base layer on the magnetic layer side or a surface of the base layer on the back layer side, and a black area in an image obtained by binarizing an optical microscope image of a rectangular region of 64 μm×48 μm of the reinforcing layer is 300 μm.sup.2 or less. Furthermore, the present technology also provides a magnetic recording tape having a layer structure including a magnetic layer, a base layer, and a back layer in this order, in which a reinforcing layer containing a metal or a metal oxide is disposed on either a surface of the base layer on the magnetic layer side or a surface of the base layer on the back layer side, and the number of black regions in an image obtained by binarizing an optical microscope image of a rectangular region of 64 μm×48 μm of the reinforcing layer is 70 or less.

A magnetic recording medium according to the present technology includes: a base material; and a magnetic layer, in which the magnetic recording medium has a tape shape that is long in a longitudinal direction and short in a width direction, the magnetic layer includes a data band and a servo band, a data signal being written to the data band, the data band being long in the longitudinal direction, a servo signal being written to the servo data, the servo band being long in the longitudinal direction, the degree of perpendicular orientation of the magnetic layer being 65% or more, a full width at half maximum of an isolated waveform in a reproduced waveform of the servo signal is 195 nm or less, the magnetic layer has a thickness of 90 nm or less, and the base material has a thickness of 4.2 μm or less.

A magnetic recording medium is provided and includes a substrate; and a magnetic layer provided over the substrate, wherein (wmax−wmin)/wmin≤400 [ppm] . . . (1) where wmax and wmin are respectively maximum and minimum of average values of width corresponding to samples of magnetic recording medium measured after the samples are stored for two hours under storage conditions (a loading tension in the longitudinal direction of the magnetic recording medium, a temperature and a relative humidity) for each of the samples, and a width of a sample of the magnetic recording medium at 25° C. and 50% relative humidity and without loading is ½ inch, magnetic recording medium has Young's modulus of less than 8.0 GPa in a longitudinal direction, and 4.0≤TB/(TA−TB) . . . (2) where TA is average thickness of magnetic recording medium and TB is average thickness of substrate.

The magnetic recording medium includes: a non-magnetic support; and a magnetic layer including ferromagnetic powder, in which the magnetic layer includes a compound having a salt structure, and the salt structure is an ammonium salt structure of an alkyl ester anion represented by the following Formula 1. In Formula 1, R represents an alkyl group having 7 or more carbon atoms or a fluorinated alkyl group having 7 or more carbon atoms, Z.sup.+ represents an ammonium cation, and a water contact angle on a surface of the magnetic layer is 80° or more and less than 100°. A magnetic recording and reproducing apparatus includes the magnetic recording medium. ##STR00001##