A magnetic recording medium according to a first technique includes an elongated substrate having a first surface and a second surface, a first reinforcing layer disposed on the first surface, a second reinforcing layer disposed on the second surface, an adhesion suppressing layer disposed on the second reinforcing layer, and a recording layer disposed on the first reinforcing layer or the adhesion suppressing layer.

A method of manufacturing a magnetic recording medium forms an unfinished product including a magnetic recording layer and a protection layer that are successively formed on a substrate, and forms a lubricant layer on the protection layer of the unfinished product. The lubricant layer is formed by coating a first organic fluorine compound on the protection layer of the unfinished product, and supplying a gas, including a second organic fluorine compound, onto the protection layer of the unfinished product, and decomposing the second organic fluorine compound by Townsend discharge and ultraviolet ray irradiation. The protection layer includes carbon, and the first organic fluorine compound includes a functional group at a terminal thereof.

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a perpendicular magnetic recording medium which uses an Ru seed layer having a (002)-oriented hcp structure, and has a magnetic recording layer including a (001)-oriented L1.sub.0 ordered alloy suitable to perpendicular magnetic recording. The magnetic recording medium of the present invention includes a substrate, a first seed layer containing Ru, a second seed layer containing ZnO, a third seed layer containing MgO, and a magnetic recording layer containing an ordered alloy, in this order, the first seed layer having the (002)-oriented hexagonal closest packed structure.

A magnetic recording medium includes a substrate, an underlayer formed on the substrate, and a magnetic layer formed on the underlayer. The magnetic layer includes an alloy having a L1.sub.0 structure. The underlayer includes a first underlayer and a second underlayer. The first underlayer includes Mo and Ru, the content of Ru in the first underlayer is in a range of 5 atom % to 30 atom %, and the second underlayer includes a material having a body-centered cubic (BCC) structure. The second underlayer is formed between the first underlayer and the substrate.

A heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) disk has a magnetic recording layer (typically a FePt chemically-ordered alloy), a seed-thermal barrier layer (typically MgO) below the recording layer, a heat-sink layer, and an optical-coupling multilayer of alternating plasmonic and non-plasmonic materials between the heat-sink layer and the seed-thermal barrier layer. Unlike a heat sink layer, the multilayer has very low in-plane and out-of-plane thermal conductivity and thus does not function as a heat sink layer. The multilayer's low thermal conductivity allows the multilayer to also function as a thermal barrier. Due to the plasmonic materials in the multilayer it provides excellent optical coupling with the near-field transducer (NFT) of the HAMR disk drive.

A magnetic recording medium includes a layer structure including a magnetic layer, a base layer, and a back layer in this order, in which an average thickness t.sub.T is t.sub.T5.5 m, a dimensional variation w in a width direction to tension change in a longitudinal direction is 660 ppm/Nw, and a surface roughness R.sub.abe of the base layer on a side of the back layer is 4.2 nmR.sub.abe8.5 nm.

A method and system provide a magnetic recording media usable in a magnetic storage device. The magnetic recording media includes a substrate, at least one intermediate layer and a magnetic recording stack for storing magnetic data. The intermediate layer(s) include a majority phase having a first diffusion constant and a secondary phase having a second diffusion constant greater than the first diffusion constant. The magnetic recording stack residing on the intermediate layer such that the at least one intermediate layer is between the substrate and the magnetic recording stack.

Perpendicular magnetic recording media including a carbon grain isolation initiation layer for reducing intergranular exchange coupling in the recording layer are provided. In one such case, the media includes a substrate, a plurality of underlayers on the substrate, a grain isolation initiation layer (GIIL) on the plurality of underlayers, the GIIL including C, a metal, and an oxide, and a magnetic recording layer directly on the GIIL and including a non-ordered structure. In another case, a method of fabricating such magnetic media is provided.

A heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) medium has a heat-sink layer, a chemically-ordered FePt (or CoPt) alloy magnetic layer and a MgNiO intermediate layer between the heat-sink layer and the magnetic layer. The intermediate layer is a solid substitution crystalline alloy of the form (Mg.sub.(100-y)Ni.sub.y)O, where y is less than 10 and greater than or equal to 0.5. The magnetic layer may be formed directly on the MgNiO intermediate layer, in which case the MgNiO intermediate layer functions as both a seed layer and a thermal barrier layer. The HAMR medium may also include an optional layer of crystalline pure MgO directly below or directly above the MgNiO intermediate layer. If the MgO layer is located directly above the MgNiO intermediate layer then the MgNiO intermediate layer functions primarily as a thermal barrier layer. The HAMR medium with the MgNiO intermediate layer provides a substantial improvement in corrosion resistance.

A heat-assisted magnetic recording medium includes: a substrate; an underlayer; and a magnetic layer including an alloy having an L1.sub.0 structure. The substrate, the underlayer, and the magnetic layer are stacked in the recited order. The underlayer includes a first underlayer. The first underlayer includes magnesium oxide and one or more compounds selected from the group consisting of vanadium oxide, zinc oxide, tin oxide, vanadium nitride, and vanadium carbide, and a total content of the one or more compounds is in a range of 45 mol % to 70 mol %.